3 comets, 3 planets and numb fingers

[Lee M]

I decided last night I had to take the opportunity to try and spot some comets and tick off Mercury as the only planet I hadn't seen.

So most of the gear went in the boot last night with just the OTA and a flask of coffee to add first thing.

4am alarm was horrendous and part of me wished for cloud when I looked out of the window. No excuse to get back into bed though as I could see a couple of stars clearly in the black sky. So remaining bits loaded and I drove a few miles to a stretch of beach which has no street lighting anywhere near .... and a completely clear southern sky.

I ferried the gear to the other side of the sea wall which gave me a little bit of protection from a biting northerly wind. Only chest high but better than nothing - and convenient to put the eyepiece case and flask on.

The stars were twinkling away quite high up but at least the saving grace was I was on the lookout for fuzzy blobs.

After a quick star test I quickly swung onto Jupiter and then the Orion Nebula - it'd be rude not to. But then to the matters in hand. I'd sketched myself a little diagram of where Lovejoy should be over Leo's head and thought the 10 x 50's would be the quickest way to find it. Within a few seconds I'd found a nice big fuzzy blob. Bigger and easier than I was expecting. So I just repeated the exercise with the finder and within a couple of minutes I had Lovejoy framed nicely in the 24mm. Definite core, coma and tail. I saw PANSTARRS through the bins earlier in the year but never got the scope on it so this was the first and I was suitably impressed.

As much as the view of Lovejoy made me feel better about being up so early, the one thing I hadn't taken was gloves and the cold wind was taking its' toll. So, short observing spells interspersed with hands stuffed in pockets was in order.

I was ahead of schedule at this point and realised ISON would be a bit low so thought I'd take a look at Mars. I didn't hold out much hope as the seeing was obviously not great and to make matters worse some tendrils of high thin cloud were making their way across the area of interest. Stepping up through the magnifications took me from a small orange disc to an increasingly shimmery orange blob. Swapping cold EPs also made my fingers freeze so I gave up on that.

I could make out Spica low on the horizon so grabbed the bins again to see if I could find ISON. From Spica up to 51 Virginis, turn right and there it was - just as clear and bright as Lovejoy. Slightly smaller coma I think but I didn't try to swap between the two to compare. But a definite tail. I'd read about the outburst last night and that was a real clincher on going out. The thin cloud intervened at this point so I could see the core & coma (just) but that was the last I saw of the tail.

Some hand thawing and coffee drinking filled in the 15 minutes until Mercury started to appear. Whilst Mercury emerged from the murk on the horizon I kept the scope on ISON but the band of thin cloud was just streaming along over it. I scanned around Mercury with the bins looking for comet ENKE but I couldn't see anything. Eventually Mercury was as good as it was going to get in a gap between murk and thin cloud so I swung on to it and .... well, it was a low shimmery disc with a hint of phase. I didn't bother upping the magnification as I knew I'd just get mush. And finally as I looked, I realised the 'star' that was also in the field was in fact fuzzy - there was ENKE.

The sky was lightening, I was shivering, so with all targets found it was a very quick pack up & headed off home with the heater in the van on full blast.

[andrew63]

That's a great night you had with quite few highlights. I saw Ison before it brightened so looking forward to seeing it again. Sounds a top spot to observe from on the coast also, as often these things hover close to the horizon.  Well worth getting up for !

andrew

[Lee M]

I had it in mind to go and look at Sagittarius etc during the summer but never got around to it. I certainly will next year. 

It's not the complete answer to LP though. I had a fishing boat anchored up right under Spica with a couple of thumping halogen deck lights going all the time I was there.

[Special K]

Nice read, Lee! That's a great session to get all three. I didn't know about the outburst so will have another go at it.

[Scott]

a great couple of hrs...happy for you