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Comet Lovejoy Q2

kerrylewis

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John

John

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The next clear night here looks like being Friday, by which time the comet will be very close to Pleiades  and therefore very easy to find.

That will make a lovely sight in binoculars or a widefield scope :smiley:

The imagers will have a field day (night) if it's clear !

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morimarty

morimarty

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I also managed to observe comet lovejoy last night with my helios stellar 15x70 bino's. And what a great sight it was too. I'm mainly a dso imager so it was a great buzz being out in the elements using the good old MK1 eyeballs. I really must do this more often.

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MAN or ASTROMAN

MAN or ASTROMAN

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I saw it last night using hand held Celestron Skymaster 15x70's- half the weight of my preferred Helios Apollos. The M13 comparison is a pretty good analogy.No tail visible.I half believed that it was a borderline naked eye object from my heavily light polluted (and muddy) football pitch observing site.

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Paul73

Paul73

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The next clear night here looks like being Friday, by which time the comet will be very close to Pleiades  and therefore very easy to find.

That will be one hell of a sight! Looking forward to the images already.

I spent a while with the comet last night. The view through the Binos was lovely. But the best views came at x60 using my MaxVision 68° 20mm. After 10-15mins, with the nice sharp core with a large coma, more detail dropped out, namely I could make out an extended coma which petered out gradually to the NW but much much quicker to the SE. No way a tail, but it was nice to get a bit more than a fuzzy blob.

Paul

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DRT

DRT

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That will make a lovely sight in binoculars or a widefield scope :smiley:

The imagers will have a field day (night) if it's clear !

I have no idea how to work these things out but it seems the comet will be at RA 3h 10.2m, Dec 21° 59'.

The rough centre of Pleiades is approximately RA 3h 47m, Dec 24° 14'.

Is that close enough to get both in an image and still have good enough resolution to see the comet?

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Stu

Stu

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I'm not certain Derek but I reckon so. If I've done this correctly, this is a Canon 1000D with a 100mm lens on it. A scope, even a very Widefield one will have too long a focal length I reckon so camera lens is the only option. Should pick up the comet with sufficient exposure/frame stacking I would think....

.....says the purely visual observer who knows nothing about AP [emoji12][emoji6]

e7510024e9934fa8f040262b98b7654f.jpg

Stu

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DRT

DRT

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Good effort Stu. I'm sure someone will manage to stitch something together after a dozen hours of processing whilst us observer types just move our scopes or bins from side to side to enjoy the view :smile:

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John

John

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Thanks Stu. I didn't have the data to work that lot out !

Actually those Vixen  2.1x42 widefield binoculars might be just the tool for this. I do have some binoculars that show an 11 degree true field though so those might also do the trick.

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Stu

Stu

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Thanks Stu. I didn't have the data to work that lot out !

Actually those Vixen 2.1x42 widefield binoculars might be just the tool for this. I do have some binoculars that show an 11 degree true field though so those might also do the trick.

Yep, they would be perfect I reckon. Even my Tak 60 with 31 nag wouldn't do it unfortunately

8d36304b4370f32dcda40bae38ea2a97.jpg

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Stu

Stu

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Good effort Stu. I'm sure someone will manage to stitch something together after a dozen hours of processing whilst us observer types just move our scopes or bins from side to side to enjoy the view :smile:

Ssshhhh Derek [emoji6], you'll cause a 'diplomatic incident' [emoji16]

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Stu

Stu

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What FOV is required to get these in?

This is 14 degrees, I think you would need that for it to fit comfortably in the fov

fa38dbcf93e473bf37885d50c6f3e742.jpg

Similar view with a 100mm and Canon 5D3 using Starry Night Pro Plus 7 from N. Wales at 20:00 on the 16th.

Lovejoy160115.jpg

You can really see the benefit of the larger sensor in that framing. Impressive!

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alan potts

alan potts

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I was on to comet Lovejoy again last night and I really taken by how fast it is moving. It must have occulted a faint star as I turned the scope to it, about 10th mag as once I saw it emerge from the brighter comet it was off at a visible rate over a period of half an hour. I could not see it naked eye last night but seeing was not as good as the night before.

Alan

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alan potts

alan potts

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A good 2 hours tonight with beautiful clear skies, clear naked eye but a difficult object to see a tail on with X74 being my lowest power on the 12 inch, it sure brings it out nice and bright though. I had a feeling the the light was elongated at three o'clock for me so that's 9 o'clock for real. This is an object that needs a shorter focal length than the LX can offer, maybe I should give it a try with the focal reducer but even then I can only drop the power a little now as I no longer have the 28mm Meade SWA which worked fairly well with the F6.3 configuration.

Had my Son out to it and he asked where the space craft was and why couldn't we see it, after an explanation he said he was going back to play in the sink.

I think with the much better sky tonight the M/N 190mm would have been a better choice of scope.

Alan.

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greglloyd

greglloyd

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Finally, the weather played ball and I spotted Lovejoy last night. Easy spot with the naked eye given it's proximity to Taurus. Reminded me of a naked eye globular. Looks like the way Omega Centauri looks like to the naked eye. Similar brightness and apparent size.

 

Through the scope it had a bright coma with a stellar like core. No obvious sign of a tail. Hints at one, possibly - But I chalked it up as a no

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Paul73

Paul73

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Can't quite get it naked eye. But it is such a lovely binocular object, I haven't really given the naked Mk1 s a decent run at it.

X50 to x60 seemed the sweet spot for my scope. I don't think that I have the aperture to tease out much of a tail.

Paul

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theclearskiesofthemoon

theclearskiesofthemoon

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I just tried finding the comet again and I went to the wrong spot again. It moved a lot further than I expected judging from a chart. But once I did find it on my camera I could clearly see it with my naked eye too. I think I got a good shot of it on my DSLR, but the wind was a factor sadly.

I'm gonna try using a scope and bino later tonight to please the eye some more.

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