Lovejoy – 3 Hrs of Tail Rotation

Comet Lovejoy Q2 on Jan 25, 2015, 00:43 UT to 03:49 UT. 3 frame animation shows how the angle that the tail subtends is closing as the comet rotates and the incidence angle of our line of sight changes.

More evidence that the comet is rotating or spinning around an axis.   This is just over 3 hrs of time and the angle of rotation in that time looks to be about 5 degrees.  So, if we take 360 degrees and divide by 5 degrees we get 72, which is how many 3 hr periods to total one rotation.    72 times 3 hrs = 216 hours total time for 1 rotation.  216 divided by 24 hrs = 9 days.    Bingo!

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