55P/Tempel-Tuttle image of the day

January 21, 1998. 13:09 UT.


Image comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle

Credit & Copyright: National Astronomical Observatory, Japan. Courtesy: H. Fukushima and Y. Ishibashi, and N. Onose.

This image was taken using the NAOJ 50cm reflector (F7.3) with a MUTOH CV-16 CCD camera using R, V and B filters. The sum produces a colour image of the comet.

Chris Deman from Koksijde in Belgium reported on January 21, 1998:

I just went outside to see Tempel-Tuttle. Turned out to be less simple than
expected: a very diffuse and faint spot, without a clear condensation in the
center, about 4' large in my old 20cm Newton telescope at 66 times magnification.
I do not usually estimate magnitudes, but I would guess it 10th magnitude,
about a magnitude and a half different from the Crab Nebula. Still, a very
exciting observation, because such a historic comet does not show itself 
every day, and when I will go out to see the Leonids in the future, I will
remember having seen their place of origin." 







Last updated: February 13, 1998
P. Jenniskens