La Cañada Observatory, is an initiative by Juan Lacruz, the observatory started astrometric operations in the summer of 2002, it is registered as station J87 in the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union.

The Observatory also participates in the studies on minor bodies promoted by the Group on Meteorites, Minor Bodies, and Planetary Sciences of the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC).



Sunday, January 6, 2013

Comets C/2012 K5 LINEAR & C/2012 S1 ISON



One hour exposure on Comet ISON, La Cañada 0,40 m F10 Ritchey-Chretien telescope


Comet C/2012 S1 ISON from Observatorio de La Cañada J87 on  05-January-2013
Signal to noise ratio in Y-axis,  full width at half maximum FWHM in X-axis, comet in red, surrounding stars in blue.  

Comet C/2012 S1 ISON, not an obvious comet at the moment, displays a coma size of 15 arc seconds in diameter. This Sun grazer comet is supposed to brighten in its approach to perihelion by 28-November-2013 to become one of these comets to remember.