Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs - Heads Up

[stevetynant]

Still a no show for me aswel unfortunately but in the early part of April it moves towards Cassiopeia which is right above my back garden so still kinda hopeful.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Moonshane]

if you can see Cass now, follow the sharper V to Mirach go down a bit to delta And. and the comet is a bit to the right. it's still easy in 7x36 bins and with an obvious tail. it's a lot further north than it was a couple of weeks ago and higher.

[JamesF]

Do you mean delta Andromeda rather than delta Peg, Shane?

James

[Moonshane]

sorry yes of course I do, Delta And.

[mdstuart]

Saw it again tonight. Lovely stellar core with a bright coma which blinked like a planetary nebula. There was a tail but it was about quarter of the fov in my 90mm refractor using an 18mm 80 deg eyepiece..

NICE

mark

[steveb1977]

I have had another glimpse of the comet tonight. Yes, the comet was a bit below and to the right of that star. Tried to get it in the scope but a bit too much cloud around.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I spotted it again near delta And, at first from my front door. A short stubby tail showed clearly (1/4 degree, or thereabouts). I then walked to the end of our street, crossed a larger road to a large pond in a green without too many street lights and a much better view toward the north-west. The comet was just above the houses on the other side of the pond. In this darker area, the tail appeared much longer in averted vision (at least 1/2 degree, more likely 1 degree), and seemed to fan out wider. The right-hand edge seemed much sharper than the left, which seemed to fan out and be fuzzier. My guess is the sharp edge is the gas tail, and the fuzzy left-hand edge is the dust tail. By then I could see delta And with the naked eye, and just occasionally seemed to catch a glimpse of something to the left and below, but it was too faint to be sure (and may have been wishful thinking).

I clearly noticed it had moved significantly since my last sighting yesterday. I also spotted M31 (barely), M42 (quite stunning in averted vision in the Helios 15x70s), M45 (of course) and the double cluster. After a last look at the comet, I turned back home. Arriving home, I just had to have another peek before I went inside. The comet was just above a chimney of a house across the road, not as nice as at the darker location, but still a neat view.

Panstarrs may not be a Hale-Bopp, or a Hyakutake, it is a great deal better than Garrad, Hergenrother, or Holmes, and the weather has been kind to me, unlike many others. Fortunately, it will stick around for a while yet. For those who have not seen it yet, don't despair, there is still time.

[mdstuart]

Michael

yes the tail was sharper on one side. To me the left but I was using a refractor so I think that's the same as you. The tail was pointing upwards. This made it look like the comet was moving but of course it is the earth rotating!

Mark

[PeteC]

Saw it tonight for the first time since the 13th. Much dimmer - comparing it to delta and epsilon And it's probably somewhere between mag 3 and 4. Here it is next to delta And falling into the Manchester LP. Not a good shot, but it's all good practice for ISON!

[Hypernova]

I managed to catch another view of it tonight, my second after last night. It is a shame I couldn't catch it at its peak brightness last week due to cloud but I am more than happy to be able to see a comet that is so bright that it is visible in twilight in binoculars

Not spectacular in the binoculars but the condensed head a short stub of a tail. Cannot wait until the big 'un in November

[PeteC]

Caught it again tonight, looks about mag 4, tail not as obvious in 10x50s as in the image -

Canon 450d + 55-250@250mm 10 sec f5.6 ISO800, Polarie tracking mount.

Still struggling to get a decent image in the Manchester LP. Off to the Yorkshire Dales tomorrow hoping for a dark NW horizon

[ronl]

Got my first view of the comet Panstarrs last night, my first comet ever, well chuffed, not very bright but the tail was very

impressive, not like I expected, more like an explosion than a long thin trail, viewed with bins for about 25 minuets, no chance

of naked eye view, higher than expected as well, hoping for another view tonight waited weeks for the clouds to clear.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on your first comet, Ron

[Bluey]

Still trying here, half the sky is clear and the other half has clouds. Guess which half is cloudy, arghhhhhhh!

[stevetynant]

Exactly the same here bluey. Typical. Another hour perhaps and thats another chance gone

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Ludd]

A brief first view from light-polluted SE London last night, took me ages to find it as the stars were being slow in coming out to show me where Andromeda was, but once I had the old Celestron 11x80s trained on it, it was a nice clear view. I won't embarrass myself by posting any of the photos I took of it though!

[yesteryeargames]

Had a great view of it finnaly, i went to a dark sight where i saw a wild Lynx cat a few years ago so i was

a little worried all on my own

Anyway regarding the Comet , i was amazed how well it looked through the telescope, binos was good too

, i tried several times to take a photo but i cannot get anything, its a panasonic lumix camera, what sort of settings would i have used ? i dont have a mount or tripod, how exactly did you guys manage to take photos of it so well ?

is it possible with a normal digital camera ?

[stevetynant]

Failed yet again but found a great spot for tomorrow if we get another clear spell >_>

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[kerrylewis]

I failed too. Got its position from StarryNight but could not find it around 19.30. We have a fair bit of light pollution here but still expected to see it with the Canon bins. I will keep trying having not seen it since the first week.

[ronl]

We had a good clear sky again tonight, got well wrapped up this time, as it's freezing cold here, observed the comet

for almost an hour this time, lost track of time really, but the view seemed slightly dimmer, but was still a thrill to see, it was

very close to a star, checked on Stellarium and it showed it as Hip 2539, as I say through my bins it looked close, at one

point the tail almost obscured it from view, or maybe L P from Liverpool, I'm hoping for another frosty night tonight, stayed

out observing the rest of the sky, as it was so clear, had another great night.

[PeteC]

Got lucky last night, nice and clear in the Yorkshire Dales -

Canon 450d + 55-250mm @ 250mm on Polarie tracker, stack of 5 x 30 sec f5.6 iso800

[majapala]

Chuffed to see it here!

[stephen_usher]

I managed to see it directly last night using binoculars for the first time. Previously, on the 13th March, I'd managed to image it but not realise until I processed the images later.

I also managed to image it as well:

and

I've no tracking mount for my camera, so star trails can be seen in the 5 second, 400mm exposure.

The comet is significantly dimmer than it was 2.5 weeks ago, needing double the ISO and 10 times the exposure to get a similar brightness in the image.

[Gweedo]

Hurrah! I finally got to see it last night through some thin cloud. It's been a long time coming.

[KeithB]

Hurrah! I finally got to see it last night through some thin cloud. It's been a long time coming.

Me too.

Took a while to find and when I did, I wasn't sure that it wasn't the Andromeda galaxy! found the galaxy a little above it, so now I'm happy.