C/2003 O1 (LINEAR)
A short tail to the southeast (lower left) can just be made out in this
animation of 15 images, stacked into three sets of 5, each exposure 30
seconds in length.
Discovered by LINEAR on images taken 2003 July 19 around 06:16 UT, this
object was put onto the NEO Confirmation page later the same day.
Observers at Ondrejov (557) were first to confirm the object's cometary
nature and together with the description from the images above from Great Shefford
it was enough for the Central
Bureau to issue Central Bureau Electronic Telegram CBET 32 announcing the
new comet, in advance of formal announcement through the IAUC's.
Two nights later and the faint tail is again visible in this 6.5 minute
exposure.
2 days after full moon and C/2003 O1 was displaying its short stubby
tail. Because of a break in exposure the stars appear as two trails each,
rather than one continuous trail.
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