Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) (Bruce Rohrlach)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Microscopium (Mic) · Contains: Solar system body or event

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard), Bruce Rohrlach

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Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

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Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

This years brightest comet to visit our solar system, C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is a long-period inbound comet which last visited our solar system around 80,000 years ago. 40,000 years ago this comet was at the far end of its elliptical orbit of our sun (a point known as aphelion), where temperatures are only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero (-273C), where all molecular motion stops.

At it approaches the sun, its frozen methane, ammonia and water vapor is heated by the solar wind and being released to develop its beautiful coma. The icey nucleus of this comet is around a kilometre wide.

Leonard will reach perihelion (its closest approach to the sun) on the 3rd January. If it survives this close encounter with the sun, it will be flung on another 80,000 year journey on a hyperbolic trajectory. If not, then this pass (brightening our Christmas after 80,000 years with its current naked eye visibility) will be its very last before it disintegrates as it approaches perihelion.
So enjoy the view ..... it's literally a once in a 1000 life-time event for this particular comet.

Skywatcher 8 inch/f5, ZWO ASI1600mm Pro camera with CMOS chip cooled to -20C.
Luminance channel 12 x 5 second exposures.
RGB filters each 12 x 5 second exposures.
4 minutes integrated exposure.
Imaged from our backyard in Lysterfield, Melbourne 22 Dec 2021.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5408513
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

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Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

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