Astroblog: A Bit of a Comet ISON Wrap-up.

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

A Bit of a Comet ISON Wrap-up.


Comet C/2012 S1 ISON (indicated) has survived its passage around the Sun. It is much faded, and is probably no more than a pile of rubble gently dissipating into space. image from 30 Nov 2013	Animation of 20 images from 30 November to 1 December 2013 showing ISONs progressive fading

Being off at a conference and away from my astronomy software I have not been able to blog ISONs going saga. After initially recovering from its beating as it passed perihelion, it has continued to fade as it passed from the LASCO C3 imager to the STEREO H1A imager.

Comet ISON on the 28th before and after its encounter with the Sun.

While still visible in H1A up until the time it passed out of the H1A field of view, it is very much faded, and it is uncertain if the remnants will be visible in amateur instruments when it gets high enough in dark sky several days from now.

I've done a quick image and animation of the high resolution H1A images available now, this give a more realistic view than the medium resolution highly enhanced images that have been available until now.

Labels: C/2012 S1 ISON, Soho, Stereo Satellite