Comets Solar System

Comet 4P/Faye 11-26-21

Russ

The morning hours between midnight and dawn were productive on November 26th. I captured three comets. The first of the bunch is Comet 4P/Faye.

The images below were captured over a one-hour period. They give some idea of how quickly this comet moves across the sky. As these things go, 4P is a relatively slow mover. It’s movement on this night was 0.28 arcminutes per hour. By comparison, Comet 2021 A1 Leonard, also visible, was moving at a much faster clip of 2.5 arcminutes per hour.

Wide View Stacked on Comet

Comet 4P/Faye on the morning of November 26, 2021. This image is a stack of ten images  taken over a one-hour period. The images were stacked on the comet so the background star stars leave streaks or trails. The star trails give an indication of the comet’s movement over the one-hour period. The field of view of this image is 19×15 arcminutes (slightly cropped from the original). North is up. East is left.[1]
Wide View Animation

In this wide view animation, 4P/Faye moves slowly against the stationary background stars. Here, ten images were stacked on the stars and are played back one at a time making the comet appear to move against a stationary background of stars. This one-hour time lapse is slightly cropped from the original. The field of view is 19×15 arcminutes. North is up. East is left.[2]
Zoomed-In Animation

In this zoomed-in animation, 4P/Faye appears to move a little more quickly against the stationary background stars. This one-hour time lapse is a cropped area from the original from the original wide view. The field of view is 7×5 arcminutes. A tiny tail is barely visible pointing off to the northwest. North is up. East is left.[3]
Comet 4P/Faye passed perihelion on September 8th and is moving towards its closest approach to Earth on December 5th.  4P/Faye’s close approach distance will be 0.94 AU (87,000,000 miles).

Magnitude updates aren’t being reported frequently, or regularly, on this comet. The most recent I could find at the COBS database put the comet’s magnitude at 11.6 on November 13th. My unofficial photometry shows a magnitude of 11.5 on these November 26th images.  If my magnitude estimate is correct, 4P’s brightness has remained relatively stable over the last two weeks.

Notes:

1. November 26, 2021 06:28:18-07:25:32 UT
10 stacked images. Each image consists of 5 subs at 60 seconds.
FOV:  19.5×15.2 arcminutes.
Telescope: Meade SN-8.  Camera: ZWO ASI224MC.

2. November 26, 2021 06:28:18-07:25:32 UT
One hour time lapse. Cropped slightly from original.
10 image animation. Each image consists of 5 subs at 60 seconds.
FOV:  19.5×15.2 arcminutes.
Telescope: Meade SN-8  Camera: ZWO ASI224MC

3.November 26, 2021 06:28:18-07:25:32 UT
One hour time lapse. Cropped and resized from original.
10 image animation. Each image consists of 5 subs at 60 seconds.
FOV:  7.13×4.97 arcminutes.
Telescope: Meade SN-8.  Camera: ZWO ASI224MC.

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