HOW TO DISCOVER COMETS.

[saurabh]

can anyone tell me how to discover new comets and its full procedure , I am using skywatcher 10 inch dob but is manual, also tell how to capture photos of likely comet instruments needed for doing so.

[ronin]

Probably cannot do it on a manual dobsonian.

The process will be to take an image of a section of the sky - black and white is fine.

Then at a later date, 1,2,3,... days later take another image of EXACTLY the same section.

You would then overlay the first image on the second and see if anything appears to have moved. Usually done by toggling between the 2 superimposed images.

Anything that has moved is not a star so that leaves planets and comets basically, add in some asteroids.

Of course it may not have moved if it is aiming straight at you. :eek:   But you do not really want to find the one that is doing that.

So really a good goto is wanted, on an EQ mount, it must track well as trailing images are no good also a good camera as the wider the field the better and a distant incoming comet is very dim. Then I suppose some software that can overlay and toggle the 2 images. You would still need to take darks to remove hot pixels.

At a complete guess I would have said that the amateur comet hunter would use a 10" to 14" SCT on a pillar, with a cooled mono ccd and a guide scope and camera.

[VigdisVZ]

Essentially you would need an automated observatory for this, otherwise it's too time consuming. Also checking the plates for possible moving objects comets isn't something that computers are very good at, yet.

[David Smith]

Used to be done manually / visually but most that are bright enough for this these days have already been picked up by one of the big automated sky surveys. Does happen occasionally though.

[Mick J]

You may find this interesting from 2007, and interview with Terry Lovejoy : http://www.iceinspace.com.au/84-384-0-0-1-0.html  

[JB80]

I had found a great site with lots of info about this, let me try and look it up and I will post the link.

It was very informative and described just how to go about it manually. It is of course a labour of love more than anything else and you can go a lifetime without a discovery but that isn't the point.

From recollection the most important factor is your horizons. You need a very good vantage point on either your eastern or western horizons or better yet both and there is a relatively small patch of sky and small window of time to scan the area.

Anyway, I'll find the link and post it as it can explain things much better than I can.

[JB80]

http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Comet%20Hunting%20-%20A%20Closer%20Look%20-%20Avoiding%20The%20Surveys.html

http://www.comet-web.net/~oaa-comet-ml/murakami/tenkai200308_murakami_en.html

[David Smith]

You may find this interesting from 2007, and interview with Terry Lovejoy : http://www.iceinspace.com.au/84-384-0-0-1-0.html

That's the chap who's name escaped me when I was posting in this thread previously - Thanks Mick!

[Special K]

Hope something is found soon, we could do with another comet to track!