Discovered on Feb 1st by Kaoru Ikeya (Japan) and Daqing Zhang (China) as a ninth magnitude comet, this promises to be a bright object over the coming months. Estimates show this comet may reach 3rd to 4th magnitude during March.
February 6th
The first observations were made in a bright
twilight sky, showing a round diffused object with not much evidence of
a tail.
March 7th
A month later the comet has brightened significantly
and shows extensive tail structure.
This is a 4x20 sec exposure at prime focus
of the 50 cm Newtonian.
Using a 135mm camera lens the comet appears to now have a tail length of two degrees
A 50 mm camera lens shows a tail length of four degrees:
March 9th
Acting as a solar windsock the comet is now showing daily changes in its tail structure. There were 4 main components to the ion tail on March 7th, which are now showing changes just two days later. There is a possibility that a new jet is starting to appear at the head of the comet. These images have been unsharp masked to accentuate detail in the ion tail.
March 21st
A few images were caught between the cloud breaks. The tail now appearing with a slight curve to the east.
The comet now appears more upright in the sky as it sweeps over the sun having passed perihelion on March 18th. This is a ten second exposure caught in the twilight sky, taken with a 50mm camerta lens + CCD.
The head of the comet is now so bright that it saturates the image after more than a few seconds.These are short exposures to try and discern detail in the nuclear region.
A rotational gradient filter has been used
here to look for features such as comet jets which show radial symmetry.
March 26th
Although the moon is now brightening the comet is still impressive in the telescope although hard to discern naked eye. This pair of images shows the typical striations in the tail structure.
Image processing now shows structure in the nuclear region. There appears to be a prominent bright filament on the west side, with a nuclear shadow leading down the spine of the comet.
Imaged through the camera lens the tail now shows a vertical orientation and is appearing broader as dust is starting to be released.
The comet was also imaged through a 135mm lens. Tonight it passed into the field of view of M33 (The Pinwheel galaxy). I have constructed an initial mosaic of images which I hope to improve with further image processing:
March 29th
Moonlight still affecting visibility of the
tail. Nuclear region showing increasing signs of activity.
April 6th
Comet imaged as it passes M31 the Andromeda
galaxy. It is now circumpolar and is visible all night.
April 13th
Imaging through hazy skies tonight I caught two images of the comet through the Televue Ranger and stitched them together to get this mosaic.
A short 10 sec exposure reveals further
development of structure in the nuclear region.
April 16th
A good dark sky this morning allowed for a
4x80 sec exposure through 70 mm refractor:
May 1st
With the moon now absent, dark skies showed
the comet tail now appearing much narrower.
There now appears to be two jets in the sunward
direction.
May 14th
The tail on Ikeya-Zhang has now faded and is no longer visible in short exposures.
May 16th
Comet passes within two degrees of M13 The
Great Cluster in Hercules
