• A color photograph of LINEAR(2001 A2) LINEAR(2001 A2)is still a binocular object. There seem to be fluctuations in brightness by 0.5 magnitude. It was at magnitude 6.4 this morning. It was visually estimated by the Pogson step method using a nearby 6th magnitude comparison star. The coma was 15' across with a short tail in the southwest. There is only one coma shining brightly and the previously visible breakaway coma disappeared. From 3 am I searched the eastern sky with binoculars. The autumn zodiacal light was already up in the eastern sky and a few untimely Perseids crossed the sky. A beautiful open cluster in Auriga drifted into the eyepiece field of the 12cm telescope. The photo was taken by a 21cm f/3.0 Epsilon at 4 am on July 23 and shows a beautiful coma and tail |
C/2001 A2(LINEAR) 4 am on July 23, 2001 ε210(21cm f/3.0 reflector) 10-minute exposure on ISO 400 film. Tsutomu Seki at Geisei Observatory |
Copyright (C) 2001 Tsutomu Seki.