COMET C/2008 C1 (CHEN-GAO)This comet has been discovered by Tao Chen (Suzhou City, Jiangsu province,
China) on a CCD image taken on Feb. 1 by Xing Gao (Urumqi, Xinjiang
province) with a wide-field 7-cm, 200-mm-f.l., f/2.8 camera lens (+
Canon 350D camera) at Gao's Xingming Observatory
The first observatory to confirm it was J87 La Cañada. Because the initial astrometry was not very precise (discovered with a wide field camera) the firsts stacks showed a quite elongated nucleus, making me think the comet was breaking in pieces, after stacking on the correct movement the nucleus was perfectly round though. The pictures , 20 arc min on each side, show the comet as a fuzzy spot in the upper left area.
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Below is a false colour rendition of the isophotes map showing an elongated comma in position angle 35 degrees. (detail 2x).
False color rendition of the comma (2x).
(c) Juan Lacruz, 2008 Feb 02, 19:10 UT
All the images have north up and east to the left.
LX200R 0.40m F10 + STL1001E CCD
Scale 1.2 arc sec per pixel.
Stack of 9 images 3 min each.
Outer comma 50 arc sec diameter, inner condensation 20 arc secs dia., PA 35 deg .
References : IAUC 8915 (only subscribers..), MPEC 2008-C16
