Comet Garradd

[gooseholla]

Took my 8 inch newtonian out tonight and set about finding the comet. Put my 32mm in. Found the general area in steallarium and after ages of looking in binos and thinking I had found it, I whipped my scope around the area.

After much searching and viewing, there it was; a small smudge with a brighter area off to (in my scope) the left hand side. Going up to 20mm didn't do much, nor did a LP filter. I guess at around 30 - 35x magnification it is best.

It really does need a lot of dark adaption to find, and patience, but is worth it.

Was disappointed that it wasn't something more in binos, but I guess the moon doesn't help at the moment. No hope of it being "naked eye" from this location. The area it is in wasn't even visible. Pherkad and Thuban are the only visible stars (to me) in that area! The rest of the area just looks like a wash of bluish grey from here.

[mike.brightmore]

I managed to catch up again with Garradd last night. It was easily visible in the 25x100 bins but it is very faint, especially in moonlight. It was exactly where Stellarium predicted. I started at Phirkad in Ursa Minor then just followed the line towards Alkaid in Ursa Major. About a quarter of the way along this line was the comet.

I cheated a bit with the scope though. I noticed in Stellarium that there was a mag 16 galaxy (IC1083) very close to the comet's position. The GOTO got me there (even though I couldn't see the galaxy) so a little look beyond the field of view found Garradd. It reminded me of a dandelion seed head. Unfortunately it clouded over before I could get the camera attached for a quick image.

[gooseholla]

I used a similar method, but moved towards Thuban and a little down halfway between the two.

Good thinking about the GOTO! Shame it has moved on.