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Comet Jacques coming around


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Nice comet, certainly travelling a bit!

Certainly is !

It was a bit of a game with me, these past few nights, to note where it had been and to then scan an imagined traj. to where I thort it might be, , , , worked well till tonight when, as I said above, I was defeated and had to resort to Stellarium :)

Never mind, an interesting wee thing and along the way I found M103, think that is the first time ever I looked for it !

Now what shall I go looking for with my trusty 10x50 ? ? , , :)

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Great views of Jacques again last night but is he fading a little? For much of the time the comet was in or near a distinct little equilateral triangle of stars and it was easy to see its movement in relation to it. Amazing to see it move over a fairly short space of time - within a few minutes. Is it one of the the fastest moving comets?

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it certainly does move fast!  I first observed it at about 10.15 last night when it was sitting neatly between 2 faint stars.  Decided to try a sketch and spent a while plotting background stars, not really observing the comet - after 1/2 hour when I was happy I'd captured the background star field I looked back it had shifted markedly, towards the equilateral triangle below (in my FOV).  I was really startled at how fast it was moving.

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I thought I did see it but catching up on here not so sure as I can't say I noticed it moving over a 45 minute period. Wish I had sketched what I saw as what I found did not match my prepared stellarium image for reference. It was a sizeable fussy ball but can't find a DSO on stellarium for where we were looking. Must Sketch next time!

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Great views of Jacques again last night but is he fading a little?

Is it one of the the fastest moving comets?

Yes I think so :(

and

Yes I think so !

I've seen quite a few comets in my time ( cue violins :) ) both telescopic and NE but this one has given me the most excersize playing catch-up, that I remember.

Good init :) shame about the 4cast.

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I saw it in my dob last night...it looked like a very bright elliptical galaxy with a bright core...but then I would say that as a galaxy person!

That is exactly how I would describe it when seeing it last night at a dark location in Northumberland with my 14" dob, very satisfying to observe.

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I generally look at a comet for a few minutes or so and then move on until the next night. I went back to Jacques a few times over the course of a couple of hours and was amazed how much it had moved in that time. It was just a fuzzy disc, with a very small bright core, in the scope - but good to see anyway.

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I saw it last night clip the corner star of that little equilateral Triangle up in Casseopia.

At this rate it will be through Cass in another day or so.

Cloudy/raining tonight and tomorrow so it will be likely heading into Vepheus by the time I see the blighter again,

Looked slightly dimmer than of late, but more compact with better defined shape to it?

Mick

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I spent ages looking for this last weekend but failed. Looking at some of the images posted on here I can understand why, it appears quite stellar. If its clear I'll have another crack at it this weekend......

When you see it it is actually clearly not stellar, even in very small binos it is a fuzzy roundish ball. I have accidentally found it on several occasions when looking for other things, but that was from a dark site. Under light polluted skies I imagine it would get washed out easily. Will check from home next time it clears

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Had a reasonable sky here yesterday evening so set up the 10" newt in the back yard.

As the air cooled the sky started gathering cirrus from contrails so clarity waned as the night progressed.

My first target was Jacques about 10pm. It barely stood out from the sky glow and wasn't too inspiring.

I kept going back as the night progressed. My last look at midnight was perhaps the best view all night.

Much more obvious but no sign of asymmetry in the coma hinting at a tail.0

Definitely an imagers comet this one! :) 

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Took some widefield photos of it a week ago as I was out and didn't have my scope with me. Lovely blue colour and easy seen in bins.  Last night I set up the scope, popped in the 24mm EP (64x mag) and started sweeping for it.  Second pass I came across it and it made me jump it was so much bigger and brighter than I expected.  Amazing how much sky it has covered in the last few days.  Well worth a look if you haven't got around to it yet!

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Seeing was good here last night but Jacques is definitely fading. It's been good though - not spectacular to look at with tails etc but still interesting. Fast moving as he heads back out to the Oort Cloud. I wonder what this fragile planet will be like when he comes back? Au revoir Jacques ... for the time being.

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Is Jacques looking a little larger / brighter tonight ?. Maybe the sky transparency is better and I'm getting used to finding it !

Looks nice tonight as it exits Cassiopeia on it's way into Cepheus. It's not too far away from the nice open cluster M52 so that's worth having a gander at while you are in the region :smiley: 

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