Comet Garrard - 11 March 2012

[DarkerSky]

Got this in my 8.5" scope at x268 magnification. It stands up to scrutiny well at high power. Also could see some obvious movement over 20-25 minutes worth of observing.

[Ags]

Very nice. Since coming back to astronomy two years ago, I have yet to see a comet :-(

[LukeSkywatcher]

I cant find it for love nor money with my 8" scope.

[Mike73]

I'm going to look for this tonight, what mag is it?

[DarkerSky]

I'm going to look for this tonight, what mag is it?

According to HA it is mag 7.5

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd

[DarkerSky]

I cant find it for love nor money with my 8" scope.

You might get lucky tonight on it. On the HA link above it looks like it is close to Lambda Ursa Minor in almost a vertical line up through Alpha and beta Ursa Major

[damnut]

Below is the Stellarium script :-

[Garradd]

name = C/2009 P1 (Garradd)

parent = Sun

radius = 80

oblateness = 0.0

halo = true

color = 1.0,1.0,1.0

tex_halo = star16x16.png

tex_map = nomap.png

coord_func = comet_orbit

orbit_TimeAtPericenter = 2455919.1863

orbit_PericenterDistance = 1.550778

orbit_Eccentricity = 1.000901

orbit_ArgOfPericenter = 90.7398

orbit_AscendingNode = 325.9957

orbit_Inclination = 106.1893

lighting = false

albedo = 1

orbit_visualization_period = 365.25

Just cut & paste into ssystem.ini which can be found in the stellarium\data folder. Be aware that windows may have placed several ssystem.ini's on your HD.

CHeers

[dweller25]

Very nice drawing Seb