Comet 12P Observations

  Comet 12P is a periodic comet orbiting the Sun every 71 years.

On Thursday (20 July) it was discovered by Elek Tamás of Harsona Observatory, Nyiregyhaza, Hungary that the comet was 5 magnitudes brighter than the previous day - that’s a hundred times brighter!

It is 69 years ago that such a strong outburst last happened.

Our worldwide Faulkes Telescope Comet Chasers have been making observations, and analysing them to try to understand what is happening to the comet.

Our worldwide team of observers include: 

Maria Eleftheriou, Mirjana Malaric,  Marcelo Souza, Julio Vannini, Jose Manuel Perez Redondo, Valentina Matei, Gustavo Rojas, Errol Simpson, Ben Wooding, Cai Stoddard-Jones, Richard Miles, Tony Angel, Helen Usher and most importantly their students.

Monitoring of Comet 12P

We were delighted to be the first to announce the measurement of an outburst via the Astronomer's Telegram https://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=16229

September 2023 Observations

Observations 30 July 2023

Linear Stretch

Rotational Filter

Logarithmic Stretch

Observations 26 July 2023

Observations 25 July 2023

Observations 21 July 2023