Comet PanSTARRS C/2011 L4 - 31 March 2013

[DarkerSky]

Finally managed to get my first view of Comet PanSTARRS this morning after endless cloud. Watched it rise off the northeastern horizon at 4am BST (3am UT). Being low down the view was quite mucky. I even got a yellow tinge to the nucleus, which I'm putting down to atmospheric distortion as it was a whopping slice of atmosphere I was looking through. The view improved as it rose into the pre-dawn sky. It was an easy catch with a 9x50 finderscope, and looked pretty cool in my 12" Orion Optics at x70 magnification. Here's a sketch:

The nucleus brightened to a pinpoint. Around it was a larger wispy mass of light that then trailed off behind it. The dust tail was brightest as it trailed off down the central section. Towards the back end the tail fanned out noticeably as it if was curved towards the east of my field of view.

The Moon was casting its light over the sky so I expect I'll see a lot more of the tail once the moon wanes further.

[nytecam]

Nice sketch - why not more hits ? Hope Panstars hasn't been forgotten so soon

[farunj]

That's a nice sketch!

[Mzungu]

nice!

[majapala]

Very nice!

[alan potts]

A very nice sketch, I had a good spell of clear sky around this time but many nights there seemed to be one piece of cloud and was always covering the comet at the best time. It didn't make sense the rest of the sky was as clear as a bell.

Alan.