New Comet Levy in monring skies - Trio of bright comets now in Sky!

[drclay]

David Levy picked up Comet C/2006 T1 visually using a 0.41-m reflecting telescope, as it passed about 40' to the north of Saturn just before the start of morning twilight at around 12h UT on 2nd Oct 2006, from his Jarnac Observatory near Tucson, AZ.

After being added to the NEO Confirmation page about 8 hours later the comet was picked up from Great Shefford and along with a number of other observatories helped confirm the object that morning, before IAUC 8757 (subscription required) was issued announcing the discovery of the new comet.

Comet C/2006 T1 (Levy) is David's 22nd discovery and was found 12 years after the last discovery to carry his name, Comet Takamizawa-Levy, which was picked up visually in April 1994.

You can obtain daily ephemeride information about this bright comet from the Harvard/MPC page:
Comet Levy:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2006T1.html

This makes the THIRD bright comet of our skies at this time:  Comet 4P Faye, Comet 2006 M4 SWAN, and now Comet Levy.
Comet 4p Faye:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/0004P.html
Comet SWAN:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2006M4.html

Happy tail chasing!

Dr. Clay

[Merc4Hire]

 Here's a couple of images of it, taken 3 nights ago I think. The night before last, I think I noticed just a hint of a spiky tail, but it was hard to say because of too much moon-shine (hiccup):