Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Aries (Ari)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo, John O'Neal, NC Stargazer
Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo
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Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo

Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo, John O'Neal, NC Stargazer
Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo
Powered byPixInsight

Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo

Equipment

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Description

In the wee hours of the morning of September 9th, 2019, here in Statesville, North Carolina, USA, two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN were separated in our line of sight by less than 2 degrees and were favorably placed at about 27 degrees above the eastern horizon at local midnight.

Comet 260P/McNaught shone at 13.9 magnitude and was 0.6 AU from Earth and 1.4 AU from the Sun

... while ...

C/2018 N2 ASSASSN shone at 13.0 magnitude and was 2.5 AU from Earth and 3.2 AU from the Sun.

I shot the pair with my Astro Tech AT8IN Imaging Newtonian & my Canon 60Da. I shot 80 x 30 second exposures at 3200 ISO.

Here's my "infographic" memorializing this memorable occasion. In 50 years of comet observations this is only the second time that I've been able to see two comets in the same field of view.

Here's the Calibration Data:

Calibration

Center (RA, Dec): (37.201, 26.132)

Center (RA, hms): 02h 28m 48.269s

Center (Dec, dms): +26° 07' 53.967"

Size: 86.7 x 53.3 arcmin

Radius: 0.848 deg

Pixel scale: 2.54 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: Up is 203 degrees E of N

Comments

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Two Comets, 260P/McNaught and C/2018 N2 ASSASSN in same photo, John O'Neal, NC Stargazer

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