Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs: a image – 01 Sept. 2021
After several months, we spotted comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs again, of course finding it much brighter. Here it is our image of this very interesting object.
Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs: 01 Sept. 2021.
The image above comes from the average of three, 300-second exposures, unfiltered, remotely collected with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at the Virtual Telescope Project. The robotic telescope tracked the apparent motion of comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs, so stars left trails on the background. Poor sky conditions.
At the discovery time (21 May 2017), this comet was almost 2.5 billions of km far from the Sun, but already active: only comet C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp performed in a similar way at a comparable heliocentric distance and it is now a legendary object. Unfortunately, at perihelion (19 Dec. 2022), C/2017 K2 will stay beyond the orbit of Mars and this will limit its naked eye visibility from Earth.
We plan to keep an eye on this comet for sure.
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