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New Comet Discovered During ‘Stargazing Live’ Event

Thursday, January 10, 2013 12:11

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(Before It's News)

A new comet discovered on January 8, 2013 named Comet P/2013 A2 (SCOTTI) was found remotely from the Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope. Credit: Nick Howes, Ernesto Guido and Peter Phelps.

This week is the BBC’s Stargazing Live, and there have been all sorts of events in the UK for what has become a national stargazing celebration. Excitingly, during one event where astronomers were coordinating imaging with students in UK schools, a new comet was discovered.

“To say we’re over the moon would be an understatement,” said Nick Howes, who is the Faulkes Telescope Pro-Am programme manager. He along with his colleague at the Remanzacco Observatory in Italy, Ernesto Guido helped facilitate the discovery. “This was one of the trickiest comets we’ve ever worked on, faint at magnitude 20, with a minuscule tail. It took all our efforts for several hours to confirm it with the 2 meter scopes. It’s fantastic that with the third episode of Stargazing Live coming up and focusing on comets, that we managed to nail this one during the airing of the live show.”
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Read the rest of New Comet Discovered During ‘Stargazing Live’ Event (441 words)

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