Near-UV and optical spectroscopy of comets using the ISIS spectrograph on the WHT

Abstract

We present an analysis of long-slit cometary spectroscopy using the dual-arm ISIS spectrograph on the 4.2 m WHT. Eleven comets were observed over two nights in 2016 March and we detected the OH (0-0) emission band at 3085 Å in the spectra of five of these comets. Emission bands of the species NH, CN, C${}_3$, C${}_2$, NH${}_2$ and [OI] were also detected. We used Haser modelling to determine molecular production rates and abundance ratios for the observed species. We found that our average abundances relative to OH and CN were generally consistent with those measured in previous studies.

arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures, 9 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Detection of CN gas in Interstellar Object 2I/Borisov
• Coma composition and profiles of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks using long-slit spectroscopy
• Mid-infrared observations of the nucleus of comet P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS)