Comet Itagaki C/2009 E1

A rare bright comet discovery in this era of the comprehensive sky surveys.
It was discovered (via CCD) on March 14 by Koichi Itagaki in Japan; among
his many discoveries was the re-discovery of Comet 205P/Giacobini last
September. (This is his first comet discovery to be named after him.) On
that day I noted it on the Minor Planet Center's Near-Earth Object
Confirmation Page, and that evening managed to obtain a brief observation of
it before an approaching storm. I saw it again the following night, under
less hurried conditions and better skies. On March 16.10, m1=9.8, 3.5' coma.

The comet is already fairly low in the western evening sky (current
elongation 44 degrees) and it is sinking lower each night; we'll probably
lose it by around the end of this month (although it may have brightened by
about a half-magnitude by then). After conjunction with the sun in mid-April
it emerges into the morning sky during the latter part of that month; it may
still be visually detectable then but it will probably fade rapidly
afterward as it recedes from perihelion.


Description at http://www.earthriseinstitute.org/coms45.html#452

Images and reports (including reports of outreach efforts) are welcome.


Sincerely,

Alan