Meet Comet Garradd

Posted by David Eicher
on Thursday, August 4, 2011

If you haven’t looked at Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) yet, you might want to check it out. Discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Gordon Garradd, the comet is currently a respectably bright binocular object, at magnitude 8.7, located in the late evening sky in the constellation Pegasus.

Anthony Ayiomamitis
Anthony Ayiomamitis
Here, I present to you two fresh images of the comet from July 29 from our great astroimaging friend Anthony Ayiomamitis in Greece. His shots depict the comet tracked on the nucleus, which trails the stars, in one shot, and tracked on the stars, trailing the comet, in the other. For more info on the photos, see:  and http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Comets-2009-P1-Garradd-20110729b.htm and http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Comets-2009-P1-Garradd-20110729.htm.

Comet Garradd will be around for a while. It will peak in brightness late next February at around 7th magnitude, just shy of naked-eye visibility.

To share your photos of Comet Garradd, upload them to the Astronomy.com Reader Photo Gallery. Visit Astronomy’s Sky this Week to locate it in your night sky.

Tags: Comets
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