Amateur astronomers equipped with sensitive CCD imagers were able to capture the faint dust trail remnant.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
Closest to Sun on 10 Sep 2011 at 0.48AU
Closest to Earth on 17 Oct 2011 at 0.23AU
Maximum magnitude 8 in August 2011
PERSONAL VISUAL LIGHT CURVE COMET C/2010
X1 ELENIN
Red curve is predicted rate of brightening. H0=10 and n=4. Purple line is time
of perihelion.
Black dots are personal magnitude estimates.
On the night of 2011 August 19, I estimated the brightness of comet Elenin as
magnitude 8.1 and it was on target for naked eye
observability in September. On the following night of the 20th, the comet had
faded dramatically by half a magnitude and
appeared more diffuse. This was a sign of impending doom for comet Elenin. It
failed to recover and as you can see from my
CCD images below taken between August 19 and Sep 11, the nucleus started to take
on an elongated appearance with
progressive fading. The sign of nuclear breakup.
Such acts of disruption are all too common for small comets that have close
encounters with the Sun.
One of the most spectacular examples occurred in July 2000 when comet C/1999 S4
LINEAR broke apart.
The comet was in a convenient position to allow the Hubble Space Telescope to
capture incredible detail in the debris cloud.
See:
http://cometography.com/lcomets/1999s4.html
J. Bortle did a study in 1991 on perihelion survival of intrinsically faint
comets and found that you could represent this by
an equation H10 = 7.0 + 6(q) where H10 is the absolute brightness and
q=perihelion distance.
In order for C/2010 X1 to survive its perihelion distance of 0.48AU, it would
need to have a H10 of 10.
Comet Elenin's initial estimate of H10 at discovery was 10.0, right on the
borderline!
So the formula was sadly correct on this occasion.
The comet passed through the field of view of the SOHO LASCO C3 coronograph
between September 23 - 29
but was below the sensitivity of its cameras.
The comets dust trail reappeared in the morning sky for
Northern hemisphere observers by mid October, in the constellation of Leo.
Amateur astronomers equipped with sensitive CCD imagers were able to capture the
faint dust trail remnant.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Sep 14.39UT
3x1 minute exposures. Canon 300D and 300mm telephoto lens cropped. Compare to
Guide V8 chart.
Prior to moonrise. Elevation of 7 degrees. Between powerlines.
Comet Elenin is fainter than magnitude 10.5. Galaxy NGC 4697 (mag 10.1) is
visible but comet is not.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Sep 14.39UT
20x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
7 degrees elevation. Solar elongation 22 degrees.
This is the final image of the comet prior to Solar conjunction.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Sep 11.39UT
3x1 minute exposures. Canon 300D and 300mm telephoto lens cropped. Compare to
Guide V8 chart.
Moonlight interference. Elevation of 8 degrees. Between powerlines.
Comet Elenin is fainter than magnitude 10.0. Galaxy NGC 4697 is faintly visible
but comet is not.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Sep 11.39UT
20x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
Moonlight interference and low elevation.(8 degrees altitude).
The deterioration of the comet continues.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
Left: 2011 Sep 2.39UT
10x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
Not much change from the previous nights image. Moonlight interference.
Right: Animation of 6 images taken Aug 19,22,23,27,29 Sep 2 displaying the
nucleus in the process of disintegration.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Sep 1.38UT and 1.39UT
10x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
Moonlight has started to interfere with observations and imaging.
Note the development of the dust tail, about 5 arcminutes long in PA 115 deg.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Aug 29.38UT
10x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
Field of View 15' high x10' wide
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Aug 27.37UT
Left: 10x10second exposures. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager.
Right:15x10 second exposures with edge on galaxy NGC 4348 at lower right.
Comet appears to be in the process of disintegration.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Aug 23.39UT
Left: 40x10second exposures stacked on comet. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c
CCD imager
Right: 10x10 second exposure stacked on stars.
Note the hint of elongation of the nucleus. A possible sign of break-up.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Aug 22.39UT
Left: 40x10second exposures stacked on comet. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c
CCD imager
Right: 5x10 second exposure stacked on stars, digital development filter applied
to show detail in the coma.
Note ion tail no longer visible.
Note that the comet is significantly fainter than August 19 images below.
2011 Aug 20.39UT
C/2010 X1 Elenin
5x2 minute exposure, Canon 300d +200mm zoom lens cropped.
C/2010 X1 Elenin
2011 Aug 19.39UT
Left: 40x10second exposures stacked on comet. C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c
CCD imager
Right: Digital development filter applied to show detail in the coma. Ion tail
is clearly visible.
Image of comet C/2010 X1 Elenin. (marked)
2011 March 27.5UT
30x10 second exposures. C11 SCT and starlight express CCD.
Magnitude about 16.5
Fuzzy patches in the field are faint galaxies!