SpaceWeather.com – http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=124789&PHPSESSID=sclp3i4695uggis44vlt4tlfd2
Several people have asked me if I had seen the latest comet to grace the skies, namely Comet 252P/LINEAR. I had not heard about it but was told it did an unexpected brightening to naked eye magnitudes and was now heading north into the southern Milky Way skies. So on a Monday morning at 5AM, I sought the comet and recorded it with the RCOS with a 20-minute 2×2 LRGB that is posted on Spaceweather.com website in the comet gallery (links above). I caught it as it passed a peculiar red “envelope” binary carbon star HIP 85750 in Ophiuchus. Notice the distant galaxies through the coma and faint comet ion tail! A wide angle DSLR image is above showing its location superimposed on the Milky Way dust. That coma sure is fluorescing blue-green standing out against the ruddy galaxy clouds! Apparently, this comet was the 5th closest comet to Earth ever recorded. And a second comet (P/2016 BA14 -PANSTARRS) may represent a fragment broken off of 252P, perhaps at the time of brightening of 252P! Comet P/2016 BA14 is currently in Hercules at magnitude 17.8.
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=124789&PHPSESSID=sln9qs1sbtn0egkhd9781advj2 – our image
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160411.html – Nice APOD by Jose Chambo
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0252P/2016.html — 252P/LINEAR light curves
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/comet-252p-now-naked-eye-ba14-faint032320162303/ — good article on 252P
http://theskylive.com/p2016ba14-info#ephemeris — Comet P/2016 BA14 info