Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P


December 9th, 2021
Got up at 3am to shoot Comet 2021 A1. No luck, of course...
It was below the horizon at 3am, so I swung the scope to just South of zenith near M44 and shot periodic comet 67/P.
With Leonard rising so late now that I was able to shoot 67p for an hour and a half while I awaited Leonard's arrival on the north east horizon.
I shot the comets with the Orion EON ED80 in my SKYSHED POD using the ZWO ASI071MC PRO one shot color camera.
I also shot them with my Canon 60Da Astrocamera on a fixed tripod while the ZWO was shooting it's routines in the Observatory.
There was thin cirrus all night, so I shot lots of frames in hopes that I might be able to find a few images worthy of stacking & processing.
Pics will come as I get time to process them...
 Meanshile, here's a screen capture
67P screenshot
And here's my fianl image for the night.

67P



67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of 135,000 km/h (38 km/s; 84,000 mph). Churyumov–Gerasimenko is approximately 4.3 by 4.1 km (2.7 by 2.5 mi) at its longest and widest dimensions. It was first observed on photographic plates in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko, after whom it is named. It most recently came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 2 November 2021, and will next come to perihelion on 9 April 2028.

Churyumov–Gerasimenko was the destination of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, launched on 2 March 2004. Rosetta rendezvoused with Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014 and entered orbit on 10 September 2014. Rosetta's lander, Philae, landed on the comet's surface on 12 November 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet nucleus. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by landing on the comet in its Ma'at region.




67P captured by the Rosetta Spacecraft


comet 67P from Rosetta

Cliffs on a comet. Captured in 2014 by the Rosetta spacecraft in orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Cliffs