C/2021 A1 (Leonard) and M3 |
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| Comet Leonard, or C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is the
brightest comet of 2021. While it has not gotten as bright as
last year's surprise NEOWISE, it has been putting on a decent
show and (as of this writing - December 11, 2021) it has
brightened enough to be visible with binoculars or a small
telescope, and maybe just bright enough to see with the naked
eye from a very dark site. Discovered by G. J. Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Observatory on January 3, 2021, this comet took 35,000 years to reach our solar system and some calculations indicate that its current trajectory will fling it out of the solar system! On the early morning of December 3, 2021, this comet passed close to (from our perspective) globular cluster M3. The skies above a remote observatory in New Mexico were clear that morning, allowing me to capture this unique encounter. I got up at 5AM local time, which was 3AM New Mexico time, and captured enough data to assemble this composite image. I say "composite" because while the comet and the object were in the same field of the fiew of the camera/telescope combination, the comet's relatively fast motion had it moving from frame to frame as I captured data. So this composite portrays the comet where it was when I took my first image, which was at that point the closest it was to the globular cluster (astronomers further east were able to capture the comet even closer to the globular cluster). M3 is probably one of my most-imaged globular clusters. Information on it can be found elsewhere on my website (specifically, 2009 and 2020). |
| Object: Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) and M3 |
| Constellation: Canes Venatici |
| When Visible: March - June |
| Distance: 34,000 Light-years (M3). About 34,000,000 kilometers (or about 21,000,000 miles) at closest approach for the comet. |
| Date: December 3, 2021 |
| Location: Mayhill, New Mexico |
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Exposure Details: L: 21 x 60-second exposures R: 9 x 120-second exposures G: 9 x 120-second exposures B: 9 x 120-second exposures |
| Equipment Used: Officina Stellare Hiper APO 115 refractor on a Software Bisque Paramount ME mount. SBIG STL-11000 camera with 8-position filter wheel. |
| Acquisition Software : MaximDL |
| Processing Software: MaximDL, Adobe Photoshop CS5, IrFanView |