Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b83b14cd4142fe10848741bb2a14c66b.jpg

Lovejoy or wishful thinking?

CumbrianGadgey

Recommended Posts

CumbrianGadgey

CumbrianGadgey

Posted
Posted

Hi,

the early evening sky was much clearer tonight so I set up and started gawping around for Lovejoy.

Just being a novice, I am still finding my way around the sky. I went from Venus up to Altair and then Vega. From there I went to the keystone of Hercules. I was looking almost due West, but a few degrees north of that. (I wish I'd taken note of the declination and RA)

From the star at the bottom (most Northerly) corner of the keystone, I looked down to the west and a touch south so that I was about half way between the two lowest stars of the keystone and saw a fuzzy blob. My blob was much dimmer than the keystone stars.

There was no green colour as such and no tail but then again by the time I found my unidentified circular blob, it was getting closer to the horizon and the sky was distinctly hazy there.I know its supposed to be around there somewhere and couldn't see anything else other than what were plainly stars. though there was haze and even the stars were not as sharp as they should have been, they were distinctly less fuzzy than this object.

Sorry about the lack of proper astonomical terms! Was this lovejoy or is there something else I could have been looking at in that area?

I was using x36 magnification and the telescope is a skywatcher 130 F7 Newtonian, if that helps all of the experts out there to know what I could have seen in that part of the sky.

If I know i'm in the right place, I'll get back to it much quicker the next time i get a chance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cotterless45

cotterless45

Posted
Posted

Yep that's comet Lovejoy, well spotted !

Been very good before dawn. This morning it was below the two base stars of Hercules. Lovely tail and bright nucleus at x48, bit more detail at x80. Visible as a fuzzy in x8 binoculars.this was a couple of days ago,post-6974-0-20296500-1387312893_thumb.jp

Nick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CumbrianGadgey

CumbrianGadgey

Posted
  • Author
Posted

thanks a lot nick!

I  should be able to spot it easier now, especially if the viewing conditions improve. I'd be better off watching in the evening (apart from the getting out of bed bit). I'm on the edge of a small market town...and I mean small. Fewer than 4000 inhabitants. looking west theres nothing for twenty miles. If I pop the scope in the car and go half a mile down the road it's pitch black and on the crest of the little hill that my house is on....I can't wait!

This time I'm going to do the sensible thing and record the position I see it in.

Thanks again. For my next trick I want to find a galaxy or two. What am I like?...barely had the telescope a couple of weeks and I think i'm Patrick Moore or Brian Cox with a 14" scope to look through! Still, there's no harm in being positive.

Mark.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CumbrianGadgey

CumbrianGadgey

Posted
  • Author
Posted

this may help

not sure if you can see it.

I agree with cotterless. It's a great chart and so easy to use.

I'll print it off.

I suppose all the hype about Ison was because of the studies that were supposed to be made of its tail gases. Then again, like I put in another post, Lovejoy's beautiful green colour is scientifically important too. Still, it may be a bit selfish but as long as we get to find out about all the comets on SGL, I don't care too much!

I'm really hoping for a good clear sky so that my daughter can see it. She has had to put up with my lectures on why it's green and how that is possibly vital for the development of life on Earth, so I hope she gets to do the fun part, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CumbrianGadgey

CumbrianGadgey

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Tonight, armed with the chart from this thread and a bagfull of optimism, i set up my scope since the skies were brighter and clearer than they have been for a while. Just as I started to see Hercules, the biggest, baddest black cloud raced over. It has been that way ever since. Over in the East Pleiades was beautiful and crisp. To the North all was fine too. I could even see Altair and Vega...but right over Lovejoy, a thick veil of cloud.

As Gordon Ramsay would say: "Why the bleep does that bleepy bleepin bleepard thing have to stick its bleepard self right there? What a bleep!"

I always thought I was good with accents but I can't understand his.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
WaveSoarer

WaveSoarer

Posted
Posted

It's been very wet and windy here today but the clouds cleared just after sunset - actually lots of holes and lumps of cloud before we got a reasonably clear patch. I'm just back in after finding Lovejoy again with my binoculars. It's moved quite a long way since I last had the opportunity to view it but it's now between delta and epsilon Hercules and just above the mag. 5.75 star HIP 83367. I could also make out the tail and it seemed to extend quite a way (fleetingly it seemed to extend to HIP 83274 but that's all I could muster with my bins against the murky background). I also had a look at M13 while I was out in the blustery wind and the comet head is certainly larger and almost as bright. The comet is only high enough for about twenty minutes or so of viewing before it's lost in the murk over the horizon. It may better viewed as Hercules rises again in the early hours but I'm not much of an early bird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kerrylewis

kerrylewis

Posted
Posted

Good view of my friend Lovejoy this morning. Easily found in the bins and then in the scope once it had cleared my fir tree (this may be for the chop this year!). Characteristic greenish tinge to the head and the a long gauzy tail whose visibility was enhanced by an LP filter and some averted vision. The east is slightly better than west for me so really pleased to get a good morning comet.

Spent some time with the planets while I waited. Jupiter good with Ganymede and its shadow crossing the planet with its GRS which, as others have said, is darker now than earlier this year.

Mars still a fuzzy blob and seeing not good for Saturn. Both of these are over the roof of the bungalow next door for me which doesn't help. But Lovejoy makes it worthwhile - catch it while you can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cotterless45

cotterless45

Posted
Posted

That would be neat. Lovejoy looked lovely this morning, so easy with bins, then a good view through the Newt. Just before that I had Mars up with a 4.5mm Tmb which gave x266, sufficient to make out the dark edged polar cap, hurrah !

I hope that everyone gets a look at Lovejoy, it's a classic,

Nick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jabeoo1

jabeoo1

Posted
Posted

Before going to bed I read this thread and was inspired to have a go at finding Lovejoy this morning.  Armed with 10x50 binos, tripod & an amaretto hot chocolate and roll up I went out at 05:45 am.   Great conditions they were too,  so thought I would get a definite 'there you are moment'.  This did not happen, however I did notice the following:

Redshift software was telling me that the comet was above and offset to the side of Sarin (Delta Herculis) at magnitude 9 !?  I was confused and I realised pretty quickly that the software location was way off  compared with the very useful chart on this thread.  The software was indicating the comet about the same distance above Sarin as the chart indicted it to be below Sarin !?  Previous comments from other observations indicated it to be a brighter than magnitude 9.

I stuck with the chart.   After a leisurely scan around I came across a smudge that looked to me more like a small and slightly elongated globular cluster.  Knowing to be no where near where any globular clusters in this constellation reside, I was happy the object was not mistaken in this way.  Also the two stars nearest the 'comet' made a perfect and neat equal sided triangle, in caparison showing pinpoint definition compared with my comet candidate.

Whats more I have found it difficult to identify the star field I was looking at on redshift once back inside after the sunrise.

So I never verified this as Lovejoy but enjoyed the best clear sky for a very long time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.