I found Garradd !

[Ender Of Days]

Phew !

Actually its been one of only a couple of comets that I found via a camera rather than actually seeing it,

I started taking wide images of 5 seconds each (using my old Lumix) and zoomed into the star field a little at a time to where I believed Garradd was to be found,

once happy I was there I zoomed into the 18x optical the old girl will give me and took a few more shots at 10 seconds each,

I drew the star field down from the camera and went to bed,

Today I checked the pictures and sure enough a little fuzzy trailed star almost exactly where "calsky" was telling me it should be,Id not put the time in correctly and when I did .. the comet shifted to the exact position it was on my pictures

Luckily I took images about 2 hours apart (2 sessions) and got the comet at 2 different times,and it had moved

So with any luck Il be out tonight with the binocs and getting some of the photons onto my retina instead,

JJ..

[Ptarmigan]

Well done JJ, thanks for that report. It gives me hope that I might get it with my wee Panasonic FZ18 then (if the clouds ever break ) Is that the same Lumix ?

I tried a while back when it was in Pegasus near M15 but no luck - I got M15 just, but no sign of Garradd

I wonder how much it has brightened since then, Note to self , must google for a light curve.

Malcolm.

[Ender Of Days]

Yep same camera,horrid amount of noise when using it like this,but it works enough to make the "discovery"

(The sky was very bright due to the Moon which is probably why Ive been strugling to find it)

Garradd is my 11th Comet (2 more unconfirmed - "Lee" in aug 1999 and Hartley 2 in oct 2010)

JJ..

[Ptarmigan]

but it works enough to make the "discovery"

I did 35 frames at 10sec each when it was near M15 but forgot to set +RAW ! doh! What an idiot, but jpg was enough to see M15 and not the comet so that set a limit on its mag.

Garradd is my 11th Comet (2 more unconfirmed - "Lee" in aug 1999 and Hartley 2 in oct 2010)

That's good, well done, I only have 2 on my FZ18, 3 previously on film, but visually I lost count my first was Arend-Roland in '57, most disappointing was Kohoutek - and Halley wasnt much better !

[Ender Of Days]

My first Comet was Swift Tuttle in 1992 (iirc)

Ive seen most of them in a cheap pair of 20x50's I got from a newspaper

JJ..