[melsky]

Had a go at shooting Comet C-2009 R1 McNaught this morning (1:20am) I was at the Rollright Stones with a group of fellow observers from the Chipping Norton amateur astronomy group (CNAAG). Picked it up in 10x50 bino's before photgraphing it with my Canon 550D 25sec at 1600 iso 85mm lens mounted on an Astrotrac, we had to wait a further 15 minutes before it was high enough to confirm it with a 12" Dob.

Mel

[kris h]

Hi mel

just wanted to know what part of the sky the comet is in and is it near any bright stars to help me find it

kris h

[moocher]

Congrats on the capture!!!! Must have a look for this tonight!!!

Alan

[melsky]

Hi Kris
The Comet is down below Cassiopia near Almach in Andromeda, I guess diffcult to spot before 12:30am due to being so low a sky brightness.
Mel

[LukeSkywatcher]

I am gonna hunt this down whenever possible. It looks stunning.

[kidlands]

Great pic.

[Keiran]

Can I find this on stellarium?

[kris h]

Originally Posted by bulldog_keiran

Can I find this on stellarium?

I tried on stellarium but it comes up c/2006 mcnaught

and i dont know if you can update the program

kris h

[Keiran]

Thats what i found!!!

[kris h]

Originally Posted by bulldog_keiran

Thats what i found!!!

When you fast forward did the ground just spin round

[Keiran]

yea it seems to be below horiz

[moocher]

Its an early morning object.....

Alan

[lukebl]

Originally Posted by kris h

I tried on stellarium but it comes up c/2006 mcnaught

and i dont know if you can update the program

kris h

You can edit the ssystem.ini file which you'll find in the data sub-folder in the Stellarium main folder. I use the orbital data for solar system objects found at HORIZONS Web-Interface . Incidentally, it's right close to NGC891 tomorrow morning which would be a great photo op if the sky wasn't so light at this time of year.

Just open ssystem.ini in notepad and copy and paste the following at the end (make sure you save a copy of the original file in case it doesn't work! It works fine on my Stellarium version 0.10.4)

[C\2009 R1 McNaught]
name = C\2009 R1 McNaught
parent = Sun
radius = 10
oblateness = 0.0
halo = false
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2455380.173206197
orbit_PericenterDistance = .4050265614991118
orbit_Eccentricity = 1.000401061331385
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 130.6974766603471
orbit_AscendingNode = 322.6226315387547
orbit_Inclination = 77.03818259277929
lighting = false
albedo = 1
orbit_visualization_period = 10401394706.0

[Dave]

There are a number of Comet McNaughts lately, as he has discovered so many.

[NickH]

Imaged 3 of them today myself...this one is the brightest at the moment

[MrJulius]

Very nice Mel and thanks for the Stellarium info Luke.

[BeyondVision]

Very nicely captured and one to look out for this weekend

Regards

Kevin

[mcspreader]

Hi All,
below is a plan and dates of Comets McNaughts passing c/o Astronomy Magazine.

All the best
Phil

[russ]

Originally Posted by lukebl

You can edit the ssystem.ini file which you'll find in the data sub-folder in the Stellarium main folder. I use the orbital data for solar system objects found at HORIZONS Web-Interface . Incidentally, it's right close to NGC891 tomorrow morning which would be a great photo op if the sky wasn't so light at this time of year.

Just open ssystem.ini in notepad and copy and paste the following at the end (make sure you save a copy of the original file in case it doesn't work! It works fine on my Stellarium version 0.10.4)

[C\2009 R1 McNaught]
name = C\2009 R1 McNaught
parent = Sun
radius = 10
oblateness = 0.0
halo = false
color = 1.0,1.0,1.0
tex_halo = star16x16.png
tex_map = nomap.png
coord_func = comet_orbit
orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2455380.173206197
orbit_PericenterDistance = .4050265614991118
orbit_Eccentricity = 1.000401061331385
orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 130.6974766603471
orbit_AscendingNode = 322.6226315387547
orbit_Inclination = 77.03818259277929
lighting = false
albedo = 1
orbit_visualization_period = 10401394706.0

That works like a charm in 0.10.5

Many thanks Luke

[lukebl]

Originally Posted by russ

That works like a charm in 0.10.5

Many thanks Luke

Great. Glad it worked!

Shame it's so far north that it's in a blind spot for my new obsy. Going to have to take the mount off its pier and back onto the tripod, and lug it out to the garden to image it. Thought my days of polar alignment were over. Sigh.

[russ]

That sounds quite an operation to just image the comet. I suppose this is when a small portable setup comes in handy.

[MrJulius]

I am going on summer holiday to southern Italy in 8 days, am I right in asuming that the comet will be higher up in the sky there? Might try to take some pictures.

[Santo_3]

Wow This Forum is amazing!
Thx for the stellarium tips, hope it will work on my mac!
I am in Rome and I'm planning to take a look at this comet the days 15th and 16th of June. I'll also try to take a picture and if it's any good i'll post it over here! Hope the weather will be ok!
Good Luck everyone!
Ciaooo!
Ciao!

[Psychobilly]

Superb Capture...

It didnt clear my horizon until 3 am and even then I had a wire running through the frame... comets is visible agains the rapidly increasind Dawn glow but nothign worth posting...

Peter...

[Captain Tripps]

Thanks Luke, just put the dtetails into Celestrons "the sky" software and it works a treat

Lee