C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

[Christopher K.]

Discovered on 3 January by Gregory Leonard of the Mount Lemmon Survey (it's his thirteenth discovery), this object definitely is putting on quite a show. BRAS member Judah Santiago took a picture of Leonard in the morning on 1 December, and in the evening on 16 December.

Now we have word from a Jan Hattenbach (via Tony Phillips) that Leonard is in outburst! The core may have cracked, or may be fragmenting altogether. Leonard will reach perihelion on 3 January 2022.

More information:
https://astronomy.com/news/observing/20 ... best-comet
https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/c ... -its-best/https://www.planetary.org/articles/how- ... et-leonard
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.ph ... &year=2021
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2021A1/2021A1.html

[Christopher K.]

Cory Poole caught both Leonard and a Geminid on 10 December while near the Sacramento River...
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211220.html

Mike Broussard of Perry, Louisiana got a really nice shot of Leonard...
https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_u ... _id=180785
...a fifteen-second exposure taken tonight.

More information:
https://www.space.com/comet-leonard-closest-to-earth
https://news.arizona.edu/story/heres-ho ... covered-it

[Christopher K.]

According to Eddie Irizarry and Deborah Byrd, Leonard is cruising at about a quarter-of-a-million kilometers per hour. It may be possible to detect this motion with a telescope, checking its position against the background stars every ten minutes.

More information:
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentia ... test-2022/