C/2006 W3 (Christensen)
The comet was discovered on November 18, 2006, by Eric Christensen with the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona; this is his 15th named comet discovery, out of a total of 19.
The latest IAU telegrams or the latest CBET's. IAUC Astronomical Headlines.
Minor
planet center's orbital elements and Ephemeris,
the comet on
Seiichi Yoshida's Homepage
Light
curves on Cometas Obs,
JPL Small body
database
2009-09-12 by Bernhard Haeusler, Maidbronn, Germany
1 min. exposure,
2009-09-12 UT 22:24, 12" SCT
f-7 + CCD ST10XME
11.85 mag, coma: 7'12", tail: 8' in PA 40�
The comet is now changing to the morning sky and not easy to photograph.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2009-02-18 B/W
4 x 5 min. exposure, 2009-02-18 UT 17:49 to 18:09, 12" SCT f-7 + CCD ST10XME
At this day the comet passed the galaxy NGC7264, 13.8 mag
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2009-02-14 B/W
5 x 1 min. exposure, 2009-02-14 UT 18:09 to 18:14, 12" SCT f-7 + CCD ST10XME
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2009-01-08 Original size: 1604 x 1079 pixel (532 KB) RGB
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2009-01-06 RGB
Because my flagship ST10XME is out of order till now, my wife
Wen and I took
this image with our Canon EOS350D out of desperation on New Year's Eve.
The image is not bad for this snapshot camera, the colors were easily to adjust
and the magnitude limit is 16 mag at least.
You can compare the picture with the image of Pepe Manteca from December, 23.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler and Wen Qiu, 2008-12-31
Wide field exposure with a Vixen Refractor taken of David Bender: The comet passed by the Cocoon Nebula IC 5146
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by David Bender, 2008-12-25
The ST-2000XCM Color ccd
camera of SBIG provides color images with very short exposure times.
Pepe Manteca from Spain took this amazing image at December,23 2008. The colors
are very similiar like images with ST10XME
and CFW8 filter wheel.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Pepe Manteca, Spain, 2008-12-23
No Moon was disturbing
the photography, but a moderate South-East wind effected some blurring on the
image.
Although the skies were really clear, I remarked a decrease of the magnitude
since seven days.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-12-14 The documentation of the photometry
Today the 70% Moon was a
little challenge, but the very clear wheather offered superb deep sky conditions.
Also I used another focal length for the exposure as usual. In combination with
my old Lumicon Giant Easy Guider the LX200 can be reduced to f-7.0.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-12-07 B/W with 2" Baader IR/UV filter
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-12-07 with self-made histogramm B/W The documentation of the photometry
Some chainging wheather conditions forced me to start several times a new sequence of images of this nice comet. Finally I am happy for my patience...
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-30 B/W
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-30 with self-made histogramm B/W The documentation of the photometry
At this night I tried out a RGB image of the comet. The comet is just passing a rich star area in the winter milky way in constellation Chepheus. The red background colour comes from the millions of faint stars on the image. Some yellow stars are also remarcable, they have good red and green, but almost no blue colour.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-29 RGB and B/W The documentation of the photometry Video .mpg (2621 KB)
At November, 27 2008 I took a series of 50 images, 3 minutes each. So you can see very different views of the comet of this magnificent night.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-27 some special views in B/W The documentation of the photometry
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-27 the full range combination in B/W
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-06 B/W
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-11-05 B/W
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-10-23 RGB
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-10-19 B/W
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) by Bernhard Haeusler, 2008-10-17 B/W