thanks for the explanation, Nick. i am trying to observe this comet as much as possible, unfortunately the weather here is very bad, lots of rain and lots of clouds. yesterday's observation was also during a brief brightening later in the evening until the comet disappeared behind a tree.

Best regards,
Erik.

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: baa-comet@simplelists.com [mailto:baa-comet@simplelists.com] Namens Nick James
Verzonden: zaterdag 18 november 2023 10:11
Aan: baa-comet@simplelists.com
Onderwerp: Re: [BAA Comets] Re: 12P interesting inner coma developing

Hi Erik,

That is a very interesting observation but I think that these are just denser clumps of dust in the expanding coma. It is definitely worth keeping them under observation as frequently as possible. This comet is large and has survived many returns and so it is unlikely that any major disruption to the nucleus will occur this time around.

Even though the total magnitude is holding constant the peak brightness of photocentre is falling back towards its preoutburst state. I've plotted slices through the coma using images from around 1 day before the outburst and then 1, 2 and 3 days after. As of last night the peak was around 4x the preoutburst peak. The animation shows the developing structures in the coma.

Richard - Do you have any images from the 2.0m telescopes that you can share?

Nick.

On 18/11/2023 08:41, Erik Bryssinck wrote:
> Hi Nick,
>
> my brief observation, in poor transparency, with Bessel-R filter of comet 12P/PONS-BROOKS shows a "possible" hint of splitting (or is it wishfull thinking ?) I see a "possibility" of 2 fragments , with the faintest at a distance of ca. 4 arcsec in p.a.  of 45°.
> Below the astrometry of the - possible - 2 components.
>
> 0012P         C2023 11 17.80388 18 04 02.07 +39 47 30.7               R      B96
> 0012P         C2023 11 17.80388 18 04 02.49 +39 47 34.3               R      B96
>
> Has anyone noticed this too ?  Obviously several observations will be needed to confirm this or not.
>
> ___________________________________
> Kind regards,
>
> Erik Bryssinck
>
> BRIXIIS Observatory (MPC:B96)
> http://www.astronomie.be/erik.bryssinck/
> ___________________________________
> CARA - Cometary Archive for Af(rho) : http://cara.uai.it BAA - British
> Astronomical Association : https://britastro.org VVS - Belgian
> association for amateur astronomers : http://www.vvs.be
>
>
>
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: baa-comet@simplelists.com [mailto:baa-comet@simplelists.com]
> Namens Nick James
> Verzonden: zaterdag 18 november 2023 4:01
> Aan: baa-comet@simplelists.com
> Onderwerp: Re: [BAA Comets] Re: 12P interesting inner coma developing
>
> The inner bright coma of 12P is showing quite a bit of detail now. This image is from Nov 17 at 1906 UTC taken with the Alnitak telescope in Spain. This is 4 arcmin square, N up, E left. 20x60s. The dark lane is now quite prominent and there appear to be two blobs of material to the north and north east. There is also a brighter outer coma area to the southwest.
>
> Can anyone confirm these features?
>
> Nick
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