1 Mr. Justin J McCollum (BS, MS Physics) Lab Physics Coordinator Dept. of Physics Lamar University 2 Table of Contents ISON network………………..….………………….…...3 – 6 C/2012 S1 Discoverers………….…...……….…...…7 – 10 CoLiTech System…………………….……….….………...11 Discovery & Prediscovery……………….…….………...12 Early Orbital Analysis…………………….……….…….…13 Speculations of Comet ISON…………..…………14 - 15 Oort or Oort – Opik Cloud………….……........16 – 17 Origin of Comet ISON……….………………….……….18 Sungrazer Comets…………………………………….19 - 20 Evolution of Comet ISON………………………………21 Facts about Comet ISON…………………....…..22 – 23 ISON a Pristine Comet?...............................24 – 25 Photometry & Current Brightness……………..26 – 27 Nature and State of the Coma…………………..28 – 30 Central Nucleus of Comet ISON………………31 – 32 Nucleus to the Tail……………………………….…..……33 Nature & State of the Tail…………………………34 – 35 Future & Expectations………………………….....36 – 39 Getting to know more about Comets!...........40 – 46 After Perihelion Passage!..............................47 – 49 Catching the Comet in December!…………….50 – 53 ISON in the Daytime…….…………………………….…54 NASA Involvement!.............................................55 C/2012 S1 Orbital Structure………………..…………..56 Ephemeris Terminology………………………………...57 Data Spreadsheet Introduction………………………..58 Data Table Spreadsheets…………………………..59 - 60 Comet ISON Updates………………………………61 - 62 Knowing where & how to find ISON……...…63 – 64 Current ISON Observing Campaign………….65 – 66 Comet ISON photo contest…………………………….67 End Page……………………………………………………...68 3 Imperial Academy of Sciences St. Petersburg, Russia Universitetskaya Embankment ISON – International Scientific Optical Network This is lead by the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics Keldysh Institute is apart of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Specializes in computational mathematics) Russian Academy of Sciences ISON has evolved into an international project dedicated in the Moscow, Russia organization, management, detection, monitoring, and tracking of objects in space (minor planets to human – made objects). 4 ISON is a collaboration of 10 ten countries lead by the Center for Space Debris Information Collection, Processing, and Analysis under the direction of the Keldysh institute. At it’s peak a total of 30 telescopes at 20 observatories located in 10 countries (most of the them lie within the former Soviet Union as shown above with the top 9 observatories in ISON). 5 The Top telescopes and observatories within the former Soviet Union that collaborate with ISON *These telescopes N Observatory Name Telescope CCD FOV, magnitude spend just a few nights 2.6 m ZTSh* 1k х 1k, 24 8.4' х 8.4', 21 per month searching Nauchnij, CrAO Zeiss-600* 1k х 1k, 24 18' x 18', 17.5 for space debris! Crimea, Ukraine 64-cm AT-64** 4k х 4k, 9 2.3° х 2.3°, 18 1 22-cm SR-220** 1k x 1k, 24 2.8° х 2.8°, 15 **These telescopes Simeiz, CrAO Zeiss-1000* 2k x 2k, 13 30' x 30', 19 spend more than 50% Crimea,Ukraine Zeiss-600** 1k х 1k, 24 45' x 45', 17.5 of their time devoted Evpatoria, NCSFTC to searching for orbital 2 70-cm AZT-8* 1k х 1k, 24 30' x 30', 18 Crimea, Ukraine space debris! Pulkovo, CAO RAS, 22-cm SR-220** 3k x 3k, 12 4.4° х 4.4°, 15 3 St-Petersburg, Russia 65-cm refractor * 3k х 3k, 12 12 х 12, 16.5 Mayaki, Odessa, 20' x 20', 17 4 60-cm RC-600** 1k х 1k, 24 OAO, Ukraine 1° х 1°,17 Chuguev, Kharkov, 5 70-cm AZT-8* 1k x 1k, 15 30'x 30', 17.5 KhAO, Ukraine Zelenchuk, SAO RAS, Zeiss-1000* 4k x 2k, 15 15' x 7.5', 19.5 6 North Caucasus Zeiss-600** 1k х 1k, 24 45' x 45', 17,5 Abastumani, GENAO, Zeiss-400** 3к х 2к, 9 35' x 25', 14.5 7 Caucasus, Georgia 70-cm Maxutov* 4k х 4k, 9 1.5° х 1.5° , 18 Maidanak, IA UAS, Zeiss-600** 1k х 1k, 24 11.5' x 11.5', 17.5 Central Asia, 1.5 AZT-22* 4k x 4k, 15 16' x 16', 20 Uzbekistan Zeiss-600** 1k х 1k, 24 45' x 45', 17,5 8 Kitab, IA UAS, Zeiss-400** 1k х 1k, 24 30' x 30', 14.5 Central Asia, 22-cm SR-220** 1k x 1k, 24 4.4° х 4.4°, 15 Uzbekistan Mondy, ISTP RAS, Zeiss-600* 1k х 1k, 15 7.5' x 7.5, 17 9 Siberia, Russia 1.6 m AZT-33IK* 1k х 1k, 24 5' x 5', 20 Ussuriysk, UApO FEB Zeiss-400** 3k х 2k, 9 35' x 25', 14.5 10 RAS, 22-cm SR-220** 3k x 3k, 12 4.4° х 4.4°, 15 Far East, Russia 50-cm SR-500** 4k x 4k, 9 2° x 2°, 18 23-cm astrograph** 1k х 1k, 24 35' x 35', 14.5 Tarija, NBAO, 11 Zeiss-600* 1k х 1k, 24 45' x 45', 17.5 Bolivia 22-cm SR-220** 1k x 1k, 24 4.4° х 4.4°, 15 6 Distribution of magnitudes of unknown faint objects discovered. 2. 22-cm telescopes SR-220 in Nauchnij with IMG1001E CCD camera (left), in Pulkovo with ST-8 CCD camera (central) and in Tiraspol with ST-2000XM CCD camera (right). The importance of ISON to astronomical and space community is there survey is primarily dedicated to searching for space debris and solar system objects (known and unknown) especially in GEO or GTO regions! Dangers of space debris for astronauts, cosmonauts, satellites, etc. Distribution of area to mass ratio for 63 unknown faint objects. and minor planets to Earth and humanity is very real! 7 Artyom Novichonok (left) and Vitaly Nevsky (right) with their 0.4 m reflector telescope. 8 Basic Facts about Novichonok Grew up in a small village in the North part of Karelia (NW Russia) Born in the former Soviet Union He loved Astronomy as a very young kid under the long, dark winter nights of northern Russia! Became fascinated with the stars and mysteries of the Cosmos. 1st Book ‘Stars & Planets for Kids’ by Elfram Levitan Moved Away from Astronomy when we is junior high when he learned about the Universe was nearly infinite; the concept frightened him. Returned to Astronomy in Senior High bought a PC with Red Shift 3 (planetarium software program). Grandmother gave him his first telescope as a birthday gift. Petrozadovsk In college he was fascinated with comets and worked studying on Comet Astronomy at the Karelian Observatory which he created. Major in Biology since there was no Astronomy program in Petrozadovsk (the major city in Karelia). Starting working remote observatories in Asteroid discoveries and founded the College Astronomy club. Co – Discoverer of Comet P/2011 R3 (Novichonok – Gerke). Worked with many fellow colleagues and telescopes in discovering dozens of Asteroids and a few comets. First comet discovered in the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union since 1989! Discovered on 9 Sept 2011 at the Ka – Dar Observatory (Kuzminskoe, Southern Moscow Region, Discovery of Comet C/2012 S1 ISON was a rite of coming of Age for him! Domodedovo district, Russia). Discovery based on six images using a 0.4m Jigit telescope. 9 Petrozadovsk http://www.ka-dar.ru/observ/ Co – Discoverer of Comet P/2011 R3 (Novichonok – Gerke). First comet discovered in the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union since 1989! Discovered on 9 Sept 2011 at the Ka – Dar Observatory (Kuzminskoe, Southern Moscow Region, Domodedovo district, Russia). Discovery based on six images using a 0.4m Jigit telescope. 10 Basic Facts about Vitaly Nevsky Co Discoverer of Comet C/2012 S1 ISON Russian Amateur Astronomer Collaborates with discovery and co – discovery of many asteroids and comets especially within the ISON. Works with remote and robotic telescopes for minor planet search programs. 11 Basic Facts about CoLiTec Group was created 1 March 2009 Partners include ISON & Ukrainian Virtual Observatory 1st discovery (group project of Astrosoft) of an Asteroid in May 2010 at the Andrushivka Astronomical Observatory (Kiev, Ukraine) CoLiTec (CLT) is currently used by two CIS observatories: • Ukrainain Virtual Observatory • ISON – NM Russian remote Observatory (Mayhill, NM, USA) 939 Asteroids have been discovered using this software (3 July 2012) now it is estimated to be over 1000 discoveries to date! CoLiTec is a group of software designers and Leonid Elenin used CoLiTec software to discover and get credit for comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) Astronomers in Russian and former USSR states who developed a data collection/image acquisition Since the end of 2011: CoLiTec has been expanded to include other areas of discovery in Astronomy: program for minor planet discovery! . NEOs approaching Earth . New Stars . New Supernovae Neoastrosoft.com . Define Meteor Tracking Continues to be refined and improved for better uses in applied Astronomy for observatories and amateur astronomers around the world. Development is ongoing with Astrosoft as it works to further develop it’s capabilities for scientific article publication and thesis development for researchers & students. 12 Discovery ISON on 21 September 2012 @ 01:12 UTC Prediscovery Images (No Public Access) C/2012 S1 (ISON) was confirmed in later images during the early st Autumn 2012! 1 Prediscovery Mt Lemmon Survey (Catalina Sky Survey) in 22 Sept 2012 @ 12:00 UTC Arizona, USA (RAS Observatory – Mayhill, NM, USA) 3 MLS images using the 1.5m reflector & CCD 25cm reflector & CCD camera 24 – 120 sec exposures stacked imager 2011 December 28 @ 08:24 – 09:07:12 UTC 24 Sept 2012 Magnitude range: 19.5 – 19.9 (Michael Jäger, Austria – 25cm reflector & FLI 8300 CCD camera) nd 4 – 7.5 min exposures stacked 2 Prediscovery Pan-STARRS survey (Pan-STARRS 1 Telescope) in ISON comet was officially designated by the International Haleakala, Hawaii, USA Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Center (IAU – MPC) as 3 images using the 1.8m reflector & CCD imager comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) 2012 January 28 @ 10:48 – 12:00 UTC Magnitude range: 19.8 – 20.6 13 Minor Planet Center NEO Confirmation Page! (NEOCP web page) Early Orbital Analysis Object was first designated on the NEOCP webpage as AS03D20! Initial calculations posted on the ‘comets – ml’ yahoo group by member Maik Meyer (Germany) on 2012 Sept 23 @ 10:29 UT.