Small Outburst of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
ATel #16229; Helen Usher (Open University, Cardiff University, Faulkes Telescope Project), Richard Miles (British Astronomical Association), Marcelo de Oliveira Souza (Louis Cruls Astronomy Club), Errol Simpson, Maria Eleftheriou ( Model Junior High School of Heraklion, Greece), Tony Angel (Harlingten Observatory, Spain), Julio Vannini (LIADA, Peru), Jose Manuel Perez Redondo (Institut d'Alcarras, Catalonia ), Cai Stoddard-Jones (Cardiff University, UK), Marjana Malaric (Zagreb, Croatia), Gustavo Rojas (NUCLIO, Faulkes Telescope Project, Portugal), Valentina Matei (Dacia Secondary School Oradea, Romania), Paul Roche (Cardiff University, UK), Colin Snodgrass (Edinburgh University, UK)
on 5 Sep 2023; 18:39 UT
Credential Certification: Colin Snodgrass (csn@roe.ac.uk)
A large (~5 mag) outburst of Comet 12P/Pons-Brook was detected by Elek Tamas on 2023 July 20.82. This is not unusual for this comet, with several large and small outbursts reported during previous apparitions.
Since the initial outburst members of the Comet Chasers education and outreach project (www.cometchasers.org) have been regularly monitoring the comet using the 1m and 2m telescopes from the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network through the Faulkes Telescope Project.
Richard Miles (British Astronomical Association) has been analysing these observations and calculating the Gaia G (1,1,0) magnitude using a 3.32" radius photometric aperture in the Astrometrica software. Today the analysis of observations scheduled by Marcelo Souza using the MuSCAT3 instrument on the Faulkes Telescope North 2m telescope in Haleakala has identified another small outburst of amplitude 0.34 mag timed at 2023 Sep 4.3 ± 0.8. The outburst has been confirmed using automated photometry from the LCO Outbursting Objects Key (LOOK) project. Further analysis since the initial outburst is available at https://www.cometchasers.org/home/comet-12p-observations
The project will continue to monitor the comet through perihelion and is particularly looking to see if rotation properties can be determined.
All the observations made by Comet Chasers are publicly available via the LCO Archive.
Comet Chasers observations of 12P made during July and August have also been analysed and presented by Manzini et al in ATel #16194 and ATel #16202.
The Comet Chasers project is led by Helen Usher (Open University/Cardiff University/Faulkes Telescope Project) and Cai Stoddard-Jones (Cardiff University) and works with students and educators across the world, engaging them in making scientific observations of comets and other small bodies for researchers. Participants are guided and supported by researchers and amateur astronomers. The project is grateful for support from the Faulkes Telescope Project, the Open University, Cardiff University, Las Cumbres Observatory, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the UK.
Comet Chasers Observations and Analysis
