Comet Lovejoy Q2

[tombulgin]

Clocked it in my 10x30 IS bins. Couldn;t make out a tail though. Good sky at the mo: lovejoy, orion, jupiter right across my viewing area.

[Mr Spock]

Good view tonight in the 80ED at x14 (42mm LVW)

[RodexMtl]

Finally the winter weather gave me a window to see the comet! This is a sketch I could do of what can be seen through a 10x50 Bins, with. NALM: 3 (snow reflexion, urban lights....)

[RodexMtl]

Im going to upload the sketch once again, but with the stars identified

[Pete Presland]

Extremely prominent in the 15x70's again last night between the clouds. Just a gentle sweep across where it should very quickly picked it up, shows no sign of dimming yet!

[Stu]

Good view tonight in the 80ED at x14 (42mm LVW)

Finally Michael!! [emoji6]

[mjpfc]

22:05 to 22:40 Out last night with my 15x70s between the showers (Came in as the lightening approached).

A Cracking clear-dark bit of sky, but not enough time to get the newt out before the next lot came in...

The Comet showed itself to the Naked eye and looked stunning in the bins.

The bright central "false Nucleus" looked larger than it has up to now, and the halo is still extensive.

As Soon As I jiggled the bins.....I Saw Two definate thin lines of Tail, fanning off towards Lambda Tauri,

from the comet's position just NNW of 30 Tauri (for about a third of a degree?). These are quite faint, and all but

lost once the bins are still, but stand out pretty well with a little jiggling. Even Debs descibed them to me -

(and her night vision is pants).

A faint star to the wsw of the comet head, was ssw to sth of it by the end of observing, so the Comet is racing

along in the "get a move-on" part of it's orbit.

Cloudy here just now, but the big bins are by the door, I will be out in any gaps this evening.

Clear skies,     Mick

[Davey-T]

Good view last night in 10X50s just after Sunset, not naked eye because of LP, thought I'd get a scope on it later then it started raining then in the early morning the sky cleared when it was too late.

Dave

[Helen]

Extremely prominent in the 15x70's again last night between the clouds. Just a gentle sweep across where it should very quickly picked it up, shows no sign of dimming yet!

Sums it up for me last night too - between 'thundersnow' and normal clouds and snow!

Helen

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Finally turned the Helios Apollo 15x70's (monopodded) onto Lovejoy.Dense core,still no tail visible though.It'll probably be away into the depths of space before I get a scope onto it!

[happy-kat]

Nothing but continuous days of cloud for me here, hope to get to both see it and try image it again before it goes.

[Special K]

Despite threatening snow and some tough cloud cover I finally managed to get a brief glimpse with the 10x50s. Parka and boots were on and off all evening trying to get a look between the clouds!

Nice hard nugget surrounded by a large foggy coma. This has turned out very nice indeed. Clear skies, folks

[theclearskiesofthemoon]

Went out with my telescope last night and this time I found the comet by eye and pointed the telescope at it by hand and got it immediately. Sadly, there was a haze in the air, but I could see a larger coma than before, though no green tinge. I had equipment issues so I had to do maintenance before getting a chance to image it, and by the time I was done the clouds had rolled in.

[John]

I just managed to get a glimpse of Lovejoy Q2 through a small gap in the scudding clouds and rain / sleet showers that have been dominating the weather here for the past 48 hours. It still looks bright with 10x50 binoculars and is just far enough from the Pleiades that I can't quite fit them both in the 7 degree field of the binoculars. If I get any more cloud gaps I'll pop put again but it's too rough out there for a scope at the moment

It may well still be a naked eye comet if the right cloud gap comes along !

[John]

Well the gap came along and the comet is, just about, naked eye visible here. It helps a lot to find it with the binoculars first though !

[Davey-T]

Looked out earlier and it was quite clear, now it's quite cloudy and windy, but at least it's not raining

Dave

[goodricke1]

Was still very easy naked-eye last night, making a pretty pattern at the top of a string of stars including 4 and 5 Tauri. Here's a quick DSLR shot :

[Mr Spock]

Guess what? Wet and windy again...

[happy-kat]

Not fair, was clear so just been to put warmer clothes on and open the front door and now it is raining!

[Davey-T]

Guess what? Wet and windy again...

Even on Vulcan 

Dave

[Stu]

Astro club night tonight, hoping the cloud stays away so we can actually see some stars!!!

Saw Lovejoy earlier, looking very nice though not naked eye from here

[bejay1957]

With averted gaze I can just see as naked eye tonight.  Nice thru my 20x80s (the breeze is making hand-holding fun!) although I still can't discern the tail.

[Davey-T]

Nice view in 10X50s too windy for imaging.

Dave

[neural]

Very windy here -- have just aborted nice session with 16x70s as they wouldn't keep still. Got my third look at Lovejoy, and I agree with whoever said it has a sort of three-part structure with a sharp centre, a bright inner coma and a much bigger much fainter outer one. But ...

I saw it! I saw it! Naked eye!!

I appreciate this may not be perceived as earth-shattering news, but (a) I'm only a few miles from Oxford Street and ( look, it's a naked-eye comet, what's not to like?! Normally I'm lucky if I get mag 4.5, but tonight I was getting close to mag 5 so this may have been my only opportunity. Also, I should say, when I say 'saw' ... during several minutes of careful concentrated looking I got three solid views of less than a second each.

It can be hard to explain to people why this is exciting.

[Ludd]

It's at last hovering just on the right side of the naked eye visible/invisible line from Forest Hill this evening, which is nice, but the view in the 11x80 comet hunters is excellent.