The Great Christmas Comet of 2011, 2011 W3 (Lovejoy) Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=.../birthday_comet

Possible very bright sungrazing comet coming mid December - Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

Information in the link above.

[Mongo]

From comet-ml post #19078 by David Seargent:

I thought that the tail was somewhat less intense but longer than on the previous 2 mornings and the head (which was very indistinct and essentially just a lower terminus of the tail) about magnitude 4.8. By the way, the 15 degrees I gave as the tail length for Dec. 21 should read 21 degrees. I left out a term in the formula used for calculating angular distances on the sky (OK, math was never my strong point. If it had been, I probably would have studied Physics instead of Philosophy and become a professional astronomer!). In any case, this mornings tail length was measured as 28 degrees.

The length, shape and general morphology of the tail looked very similar to that of Ikeya-Seki when observed the same number of days after perihelion. Yet, I-S was definitely more intense; I would guess from memory about 2 magnitudes brighter. Also, the terminus of the tail seemed to end more suddenly than that of Lovejoy (the last 5 degrees or so of W3's tail grew very faint and difficult with the naked eye and could not be traced in the telescope). But the biggest difference was the head. At this point in its orbit, the head of the earlier comet was also about 2 magnitudes brighter and appeared in the 20x65 binoculars that I was then using as a very distinct, almost disk-like object; rather like a very bright and compact planetary nebula.