COMET 2007 E2 (Lovejoy) - PHOTOS AND OBSERVATIONS

Possum Observatory - John Drummond, New Zealand

Congratulations to Terry Lovejoy from Brisbane, Australia on his photographic survey discovery of a magnitude 9.5 comet in the deep southern sky! IAU Circular No. 8819 states -
COMET 2007 E2
Terry Lovejoy, Thornlands, Queensland, Australia, reports his discovery of a comet with a strong central condensation and a green extended 4' coma, with a slight extension to the southwest, on sixteen 90-s CCD images obtained on Mar. 15 with a Canon 350D camera (+ 200-mm f/2.8 lens); the coma diameter was given as 5' from his Mar. 16 frame (his positions below have estimated uncertainties of +/- 15"). At Lovejoy's request, J. Drummond (Gisborne, New Zealand, 0.41-m reflector) confirmed the comet visually at mag 9.5 (moderately condensed, coma diameter 2'.6, no tail).

2007 UT R.A. (2000) Decl. Mag. Observer
Mar. 15.727 20 44 05.5 -51 14 14 10 Lovejoy
15.736 20 44 06.1 -51 13 22 "
16.525 20 43 02.7 -50 49 35 9.5 Drummond
16.625 20 42 59.5 -50 45 39 "
16.704 20 42 55.2 -50 43 14 9.3 Lovejoy

The following was extracted from GUIDE 8.0 software...

Orbital elements:

The following are some confirmation images I took of it with an SBIG STL11000M CCD.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW...	DETAILS:	..
	Date (UT): Scope: Camera: Exposures: NOTES:	Thursday 26.72 April 2007 (UT) 41cm (16") f5.2 Meade Newtonian SBIG STL11000M CCD 30 seconds - 10Lum, 5red, 5green, 5blue North = down, East = right
	Date (UT): Scope: Camera: Exposures: NOTES:	Saturday 24.66 March 2007 (UT) 41cm (16") f5.2 Meade Newtonian SBIG STL11000M CCD 1 minute - 5Lum, 3red, 3green, 3blue Comet mag 8.7, 4.5' coma, DC:4
	Date (UT): Scope: Camera: Exposures and ISO: NOTES:	Friday 16.5-60 March 2007 (UT) 41cm (16") f5.2 Meade Newtonian SBIG STL11000M CCD 3 minutes - 6Lum, 3red, 2green, 2blue Comet is mag 9.5, 2.5' coma, and diffuse

EPHEMERIDES...