Visibility II / V
Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) is quite far away 5.4au from both Earth and Sun. However, comet's nucleus is big, several tens of kilometers and that's why it's quite bright already, m1 around mag 12.5.
Image 1) 15x60s bin2, Baader Clear filter, star stacked, no flats
Image 2) 15x60s bin2, Baader Clear filter, comet optocenter stacked, no flats
Image 3) 12*300s bin2, Semrock 387nm/15nm filter, tracking and stacked to comet optocenter, no flats
Image 4) 3x15x60s bin2, Astrodon RGB, comet optocenter stacked, no flats
Image1 and image2 showing comet through L/Clear filter. 5' tail to PA 11° is visible. Measured m2 brightness 15.0 with aperture radius 6" with filter G/V.
Image3 is showing faint comet coma in near UV 387nm light, negative or minor observation of CN 3883Å gas.
Image4 RGB color image showing comets bluish coma indicating sublimation of carbon monoxide (CO)
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Interesting comet and quite long tail already.
Inclination 87 degrees so that is also pretty unususual.
Must start monitoring this now.
Hopefully it will be near naked eye limit a year from now.
It will be nice mag10 morning comet from end of December until April. Unfortunately when it starts to be much brighter it will be summertime in Finland and it's also moving quite fast to lower declinations. It seems to be great object for observatories in southern Spain during summer :-)
C/2017 K2 (PANSTARSS) kuuluu ns. ulomman Oortin pilven komeettoihin, joilla on tosi pitkä periodi ja apheli kaukana. Viittasin tähän ja muihin samankaltasiiin komeettoihin verkko-Cygnuksen esitelmässäni https://youtu.be/_fhm33uFksg (kohdasta 24:50 eteenpäin).