Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail (Niall MacNeill)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Piscis Austrinus (PsA) · Contains: Solar system body or event

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail, Niall MacNeill

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

Well you just have to keep trying to image it when it's there don't you?

Here again I show the comet in a vertical orientation as it appears in our western skies. Given I had some success with a 2 panel mosaic I thought I would go for broke and try 4 panels. I made 35 x 15 sec captures for each panel. Unlike my last image, the stars are round, as I realised I needed to collimate the Hyperstar and was able to find a good process for doing so.

The left hand image shows the extent of my 4 panel mosaic where about 9 degrees of the comet's tail can be seen. The middle image is zoomed in to show about 4 degrees of the tail and the right hand image is clearly zoomed in to show detail around the comet's head and 2 degrees of the tail.

The dust tail is substantially to the right side in the images. It is smooth and curves along the comets path. The ion tail at left shows knots and swirls in great detail. The discontinuities are due to variations in the solar wind, including those from Coronal Mass Ejection (CMEs). The tails seem to be separating now and are easier to differentiate. The head shows the classic green colour from diatomic carbon (C2) and nitrile (CN) chemical species which are producing emissions.

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Description: I added a 3rd panel to show more detail of the comet's nucleus. This panel shows about 2 degrees of the comet.

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Status	Advanced failed
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Astrometry.net job	5412095
PixInsight job	M463WS74H3BJ773ZY7GISUR2UU5MDIRE
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

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Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard - along 9 degrees of its glorious tail

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