Comet Lovejoy Q2

[Pete Presland]

I didn't see a tail, but a faint elongation. Very bright core, and easy to find.

All four of us were pretty sure we saw it with our mk 1 eyeballs.

I thought i could see a hint as well, but i wasnt sure whether i was just convincing myself i could.

[kerrylewis]

Not quite naked eye with my LP but the Vixen 2.1s show it. A lovely sight in the SCT: large and bright with a very bright core. A faint greenish blue tinge. Great how it sits there among the stars saying 'I'm off soon but I'll be back in a few thousand years' 

[Laurie61]

Had a look without consulting stellarium and could not find it, wow it's travelled since my last look, once located it is just naked eye here. No tail seen with 8x40's.  

love.bmp 

[Luke]

It's MkI eyeball here, bright core but couldn't see a tail, using bins. Conditions are not that great our way, high up cloud? Just stuck with the bins for 15 mins of observing, was great fun spotting a bunch of my regular scope targets in a wider setting.

[DRT]

I could definitely see it naked eye tonight. I viewed it through the 8x40 binos, 80mm travel scope, C6 SCT and 6" Newt with a variety of eyepieces. By far the clearest view was the 6" Newt with the Ethos 13mm - very similar to the view I had in the 12" Dob last night but brighter with a hint of green in the comma. Fabulous.

The C6 showed quite a dim view, even at low power. I'll get the 1100 out next weekend as I think the extra aperture will help with the slower scopes.

The view that surprised me most was through the 80mm Travelscope. It's the first time I have used it in anger on a clear sky and mounted on the SkyTee it gives a great wide-field view. The comet was nice and clear, albeit small, with a bright core. I even managed to split the Trapezium in M42 with an ES 11mm

[Stu]

Lovely views here. Not naked eye, but that doesn't surprise me given my skies.

In the 15x50's, it did look nice and bright, quite large too. It brightens a lot towards the centre and although I couldn't see a tail, I reckon I could detect that the bright centre was offset away from the direction the tail is in (if that makes sense?)

No chance for the scope tonight, other stuff on which is a shame as it does look nice out there now.

Had a whistle stop tour of other objects whilst out there, made more interesting and slightly more difficult by a tipsy Mrs Maksutov deciding to join me outside. She tried her own binos, but the views were rubbish (I think because she left the endcaps on [emoji6])

Enjoy if you are out there still

Stu

[John]

Sounds fun Stu

I'm still in and out as the clouds come and go but I reckon clouds / drizzle are on their way soon.

I've shown my other half and my son the comet and they were slightly underwhelmed, as ever

Well it is 45,000,000 miles away I explained ......

[Helen]

The weather cooperated at last        Got it first in the Vixen 2.1, then in the Megrez 90, but the best view was with the 15x70 binos.  Big bold and bright, and I got the hint of the tail as well     Once we knew where it was both Mike and I thought we could see it naked eye.  Not sure about colour though...  Jean's been on the phone, chuffed to have seen it in 15x70 binos from suburban Cardiff - she thought it did look greeenish.

My Obs mount has a problem, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to finally get the lodestar working.  Managed to get everything loaded, started on Orion Neb as a test first, was just getting a reasonable picture when it started 'big' rain     So no pictures.

Fun evening though 

Helen

[Paul M]

Just seen it naked eye.

It's huge, from horizon to horizon, covering the whole sky, bright as daylight with an orange glow. Can't even see the stars through it.

... it's moving very fast. Almost as though the wind is blowing it along...

Oh, there's rain coming from it! That can't be right??

Not feeling the love nor the joy!

[kerrylewis]

Great night -but  just a few wisps of cloud coming over now. Lovely views of Lovejoy and all the planets with just Saturn to go in the morning - clouds willing.

I love seeing any comet but we do seem to be getting more than our fair share of these lovely fuzzy balls and their 'did I, didn't I see it' tails. What we need to redress the balance is a real cometty comet with a glorious tail. Is that too much to ask?

Meanwhile Lovely Lovejoy will more than do.

[Stu]

Good stuff on the Planet marathon Kerry. I missed Venus and Mercury because of a stubborn bank of low cloud at the wrong time [emoji20]. Will try again another night hopefully.

Good luck with Saturn!

[Stu]

Btw, a really cometty comet would be great, I agree!!

[Davey-T]

Looked at Lovejoy for a while but couldn't see a tail so tried to image it and PHDs gone mad, stars drifting South and it's issuing South corrections

Dave 

[goodricke1]

Quite easy naked eye object from rural Ireland tonight, just shows the difference that dratted moon makes... lovely sight through the scope, with a really intense 'stellar' core and masses of eneveloping nebulosity. Well done Mr Lovejoy, another triumph!

[DaveGarland]

Typical Dave luck going on here. I agreed with my mate Jon to try and take a pic of this. I'm into astronomy, he's into photography. Between us surely we could nail this?! So the one night this week the weather is clear/not blowing a gale and my wife gets a baby sitting job! Anyway I'm stuck at home and I get a phone call from Jon. He's found somewhere dark and doesn't know what he's looking at so I go out in the garden in my dressing gown and try to explain to him what we're looking at. He feels uneasy and has a nervous stammer.... And to think some people think we're nerds!

Anyhoo I got a nice look in my binos and it looks quite nice. No visible tail and not a naked eye object from Bristol but always nice to see a space snowball. I'll let you know how Jon got on.

[Mr Spock]

Still wet and windy here.

[WaveSoarer]

I was lucky enough to view it tonight with my 10 x 50 bins and my 200p. I thought I caught a hint of tail with the 200p and my 20 mm EP but this may have been a little bit of wishful thinking. The bright stellar core and foggy halo were certainly very marked. The comet was also easily seen with the naked eye.

[Special K]

Fantastic reports everyone, thanks for the BUZZ! I'm just warming after a crisp 2 or 3 hours observing and Lovejoy definitely looked good. I threw everything I had at it and the ED80 with 31mm looked best. Had a few moments where I tried to make out a tail but I'm cheating because I know it's pointing NE............forgettaboutit....I didn't see it! Despite looking at all sorts of targets with the scope, I thought this an ideal bins night, and was great fun coming back to the comet over and over again. Not quite naked eye here.

Moon is up now, and though we've all been wishing it out of the vicinity of our icy little friend, it certainly is a beautiful sight tonight. It blew me away as a boiling yellow beacon rising through the treeline. Our comet can stand a fair amount of moonglow, but it's that cursed weather that's the most difficult. Clear skies!

[Davey-T]

No sign of a tail using DSLR will try RGB next time, only managed a couple of JPEGs tonight after guiding troubles again.

Dave

[yesteryeargames]

Battled the thick clouds wind and rain down in cornwall , but inbetween there were some clear skies had 5 mins of viewing before the heavens opened again . It was frantic shifting my big skywatcher about but so is our hobby living in the UK .

[clarkpm4242]

Excellent view naked eye from the dark NE Yorkshire Dales last night.

Also through 15x50 Canon IS binoculars.

Didn't have to get out of the car...

...good hunting!

Cheers

Paul

[theclearskiesofthemoon]

I had a look last night and couldn't find it. Weather was working against me, but I took some pictures with my DSLR and found it at the very bottom of one of them. It's still a little lower than I expect from the chart I saw. Now that I do know where to find it I hope the weather permits me another chance in the coming days.

[si@nite]

I managed to get a look at lovejoy last night through binos, the view looked very similar to m13 to me!

[Mark at Beaufort]

After viewing Mercury and Venus I had left the 4" frac outside to await the Comet.

Time about 6.45pm and managed to find Lovejoy with the Vixen 2.1x42 binos and then switched to the 4" Astro Tech frac. Great sight using the 13mm Ethos. As previously stated the head is now quite bright but I failed to see a tail.

Stopped using the scope and could clearly see the Comet with the naked eye. In the end I preferrred the view with the 20x80 binos.

Returned home about 11.30pm after visiting friends by which time the Moon was up - looking fabulous to be honest. Went outside with the 15x70 binos and had a lovely view of the Comet - again easy to see with the naked eye - although it helps to know where it is   

[John]

It was good that quite a few of us got some nice views of the comet last night, The forecast for the next few days is pretty uninspiring