Comet 46P/Wirtanen starts its northern show: new images (5 Dec. 2018)
Comet 46P/Wirtanen is now ready for you to see it. Visible to the naked eye from dark sites, it is an easy target with a modest binocular and it will be even brighter in...
Category: comets
Wirtanen, the Christmas 2018 comet: how, where and when – a quick guide to comet 46P
Ok, you have surely heard about this: comet Wirtanen is putting its show out there, just on time for Christmas. Here you will find a few tips to look for and enjoy this nice...
Comet 46P/Wirtanen is entering the Northern sky: a close-up image (1 Dec. 2018)
Comet 46P/Wirtanen is higher and higher in the northern skies, preparing for its imminent show. While we are waiting, here it is a new image from last night. * NB: versione in Italiano qui * The image...
Comet 46P/Wirtanen is getting brighter: a new close-up image (28 Nov. 2018)
Comet 46P/Wirtanen is getting brighter and brighter, while it heads to its best visibility for us living in the Northern hemisphere. After many weeks of bad weather, we could observe it and we share...
Comet 46P/Wirtanen: an image (7 Nov. 2018)
We imaged comet 46P/Wirtanen again, after almost one month of cloudy weather. It is now much brighter, on its way to become our Christmas 2018 comet! The image above comes from the average of...
Wirtanen, the Christmas 2018 comet – live, online observation (12, 16 and 18 Dec. 2018)
This Christmas 2018 will have its very own comet: 46P/Wirtanen! It is visible to the naked eye and the Virtual Telescope Project will show it live, online, bringing it to people worldwide, to the...
46P/Wirtanen: the Christmas 2018 comet – first images
If we think about an astronomical object connected to an important event in our culture, it is a comet: it is the traditional, astronomical symbol of Christmas. While talking about the origin of this...
Comet 65P/Gunn: an image (10 Sept. 2018)
Comet 65P/Gunn orbits the Sun with a period of 6.8 years. Its last perihelion was on Oct 2017. Here it is an image we captured about one year later, on Sept. 2018. The image above...
Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann: an image (10 Sept. 2018)
Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann is one of the most studied dirty snowballs out there, as it shows frequent outburst, making it a unique object. We observed this comet many times over the year, but quite oddly...
Comet 37P/Forbes: an image (10 Sept. 2018)
Comet 37P/Forbes orbits the Sun with a period of 6.3 years. Its last perihelion was last May. Here it is an image we captured a few nights ago. The image above comes from the...
Comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels: an image (17 Sept. 2018)
Comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels orbits the Sun with a period of 9.4 years. Here it is an image we captured a few nights ago. The image above comes from the average of six, 300-seconds exposures, unfiltered, remotely...
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner: an image (17 Sept. 2018)
We continue observing comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner after its perihelion, while it leaves the inner Solar System. The comet is slowly fading. The image above comes from the average of 22, 180-seconds exposures, unfiltered, remotely collected “Elena”...
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner: an image (11 Sept. 2018)
While both at its perihelion and about at its minimum distance from the Earth, we imaged comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, under good sky conditions. Here it is what we saw. The image above comes from the...
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner meets the Messier 37 open star cluster – 11 Sept. 2018.
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner made a nice conjunction early this morning, to celebrate both its perihelion (minimum distance from the Sun) and its large flyby with the our Planet. While surfing the skies, the comet met...
