Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on 20 February 2015

Size: 2000 px

© Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov 2014

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy using a 0.2-meter (8 in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. It is is a long-period comet.By December 2014 the comet had brightened to roughly magnitude 7.4 making it a small telescope and binoculars target. By mid-December the comet was visible to the naked eye for experienced observers with dark skies. This image shows the comet on February 20th 2015 at 19:40 UT, when a part of comet's tail has covered Messier 76 (Little Dumbbell). Hovering the mouse will show the names of some objects. The fast movement of the structures in the comets's tail can be seen on the small animation below:

Image details:

Annotation

Center of field RA	01:43:08 (h:m:s)
Center of field DE	51:50:39 (deg:m:s)
Size	1.6 x 1.21 (deg)
Pixel scale:	2.87 (arcsec/pixel)
Orientation:	Up is -161 degrees E of N

Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net

Optic(s):	ASA 12" Astrograph @ f/3.6 (Newton)
Mount:	ASA DDM85 Standard
Camera:	SBIG STL 11000 M
Filters:	Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, Astronomik filters
Dates/Times:	20. 02. 2015
Location:	IRIDA Observatory, BG, longitude: E 24 44' 18", latitude: N 41 41' 42"
Exp. Details:	L:3 min; R:3 min, G:3 min, B:3 min Bin 2, Total Exposure Time - 12 min
More details:	Dark and flat frames reduction,
Processing:	PixInsight / PS

e-mail: info@irida-observatory.org