{"id":292,"date":"2006-10-25T01:22:16","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T01:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/10\/25\/comet_2006m4_sw\/"},"modified":"2021-11-28T00:02:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T00:02:48","slug":"comet_2006m4_sw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/10\/25\/comet_2006m4_sw\/","title":{"rendered":"C\/2006 M4 (SWAN) &#8211; OCT 22, 2006, 02:45 UT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"javascript:myVoid()\" onmouseover=\"rollover('img2006102101')\" onmouseout=\"rollout('img2006102101')\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006102101_2006M4SWANa.jpg\" name=\"img2006102101\" alt=\"Step 1\" border=\"1\" color=\"FFFFFF\"><\/a><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><br \/>\n<!--\nsetrollover(\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006102101_2006M4SWANb.jpg\");\n\/\/--><br \/>\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><!-- br--><\/p>\n<p><i>Move mouse over upper image for labels.<br \/>\nClick <a href=\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006102101_2006M4SWANlg.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> for a large (51K) version of this sketch.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Observation Notes<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This was a surprisingly beautiful comet! The coma was bright and strongly condensed. I did not detect a pseudo-nucleus however. The slender gauze of an ion tail flowed toward the north-northeast at a position angle of about 20\u00b0. It was visible to a distance of about 1.5\u00b0 from the coma and responded well to slow motions of the telescope. The coma itself revealed a subtle elongation with its core placed toward the southern side with the elongated coma flowing toward the north at a position angle of about 350\u00b0. As I spent time looking for any additional structure in the coma, I picked up what may have been a couple spokes at PAs of 90\u00b0 and 230\u00b0. These were very subtle though, and may have been illusions. Over the course of a half hour, the comet moved about 3.5 arc minutes to the east.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the visual appeal of this view was the bright double star Mu Bootis. The primary of this pair was bright yellow with what appeared to be a white secondary. With this bright double so close, I wasn&#8217;t able to make a successful effort to spotting it with the naked eye. It did show up easily through a 25 mm monocular. Through this monocular and my 10 x 50 binoculars, the magnitude of the comet appeared to be midway between that of Mu Bootis and the nearby pair HIP 75390\/TYC 3052-1626-1. I&#8217;m not sure what the combined magnitude of each pair is, so I can&#8217;t give an estimate&#8211;although similarly timed observations hovered around 6th magnitude.<\/p>\n<p><b>Object Information:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/cometography.com\/lcomets\/2006m4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gary Kronk&#8217;s Cometography<\/a>, 2006\/M4 (SWAN) was spotted on SWAN images by R.D. Matson and M. Mattiazzo &#8220;shortly before early July of 2006&#8221;. Perihelion was September 28.92, 2006, and the comet is moving in a hyperbolic orbit, which means it will be ejected from the solar system, never to return.<\/p>\n<table width=\"470\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding-left=\"4\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Subject<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Comet 2006\/M4 (SWAN)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Classification<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Comet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Position*<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Bootis<br \/>\n02:45 UT &#8211; [RA: 15:22:55.3 \/ Dec: +37:38:11]<br \/>\n03:15 UT &#8211; [RA: 15:23:09.8 \/ Dec: +37:37:39]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Size<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Coma: 10&#8242;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Brightness*<\/b><\/td>\n<td>~6 vMag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Date\/Time<\/b><\/td>\n<td>October 21, 2006 &#8211; 7:45 &#8211; 8:15 PM MST<br \/>\n(October 22, 2006 &#8211; 02:45 &#8211; 03:15 UT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Observing Loc.<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Cinder Hills Overlook &#8211; Sunset Crater National Monument, AZ<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Instrument<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia.\/1200 mm F\/L)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Eyepieces\/Mag.<\/b><\/td>\n<td>32 mm Sirius Pl\u00f6ssl (37.5X)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Conditions<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Clear, calm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Seeing<\/b><\/td>\n<td>5\/10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Transparency<\/b><\/td>\n<td>Mag 6.8 + NELM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>*Sources<\/b><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/cometography.com\/lcomets\/2006m4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gary Kronk&#8217;s Cometography<\/a>;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aerith.net\/comet\/catalog\/2006M4\/2006M4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aerith.net<\/a><br \/>\nStarry Nights Pro Plus 5.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>C\/2006 M4 (SWAN) 20061021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,56,45,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comet","category-double-star","category-sg-comet","category-sketch-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/10\/27\/comet_2006m4_sw_1\/","url_meta":{"origin":292,"position":0},"title":"C\/2006 M4 (SWAN) &#8211; 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January 22, 2006","author":"jperez1690","date":"January 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"C\/2005 E2 (McNaught) 20060122","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comet&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comet","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/comet\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":430,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/08\/01\/binocular_sketc\/","url_meta":{"origin":292,"position":4},"title":"Binocular Sketches","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Binocular Sketches","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Gallery&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Gallery","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/gallery\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":456,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/01\/10\/c2007_n3_lulin_1\/","url_meta":{"origin":292,"position":5},"title":"C\/2007 N3 (Lulin) Observation Analysis","author":"jperez1690","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"C\/2007 N3 (Lulin) 2009011002","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comet&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comet","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/comet\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}