Comet C/2011 J2 Linear splitting: a new image (15 Oct. 2014)
Comet C/2011 J2 Linear with its fragment: 15 Oct. 2014
Continuing our long coverage of this object, comet C/2011 J2 Linear and its fragment b was observed again under far-from-ideal weather conditions. While clouds were approaching and the sky was already significantly opaque, results were not too bad, as shown here.
The image above comes from nine, 300-seconds unfiltered exposures, remotely collected with the PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope Project. They were combined using a median technique, to limit the potential interference of faint stars with the fragment. Fragment b confirms to be fainter. The telescope tracked at the apparent rate of the comet.
Further analysis is under way. Fragment b continues moving away from the main nucleus and an animation covering all our observations will be presented soon.
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