Comet Lovejoy still out there?

[Joves]

I've only been able to view it once so far in my 18x50 bins and, to be honest, at first glance I thought I had stumbled across a new globular cluster that I hadn't realised was in the region. After a tiny bit more observation, it was quite clear that there was a bright core. I too was surprised at the size and general look of it. Look forward to hopefully taking a better look at it through a scope.

[WaveSoarer]

I've been viewing it this evening with my 10 x 50 bins and my sw 200p. It's also easily naked eye visible.

[DaveS]

Just seen it in my 7x50s as a pale greenish fuzzy patch. No chance of naked eye visibility here.

[ronin]

Just found it, very much a round patch.

Well placed for me at this time, literally straight line out the front door and up a bit to the lower right hand end of Taurus. Helped a huge amount by the street lights being turned off at 11:50 - so it is reasonably dark.

[Tot]

Just found it, very much a round patch.

Well placed for me at this time, literally straight line out the front door and up a bit to the lower right hand end of Taurus. Helped a huge amount by the street lights being turned off at 11:50 - so it is reasonably dark.

I wish they'd turn the street lights off round here!!  I'm  surrounded by huge orange and yellow beasts that cause me so much trouble.  But...

With 20 x 80 binos saw this comet earlier.  First comet I've ever seen.  Like many others, it seems, I thought it was a globular cluster at first, but no - it was exactly where the comet should have been.  It really is a big blob, brighter at the centre.

[Hootsitabernacle]

.......was that your dustbin past my window on Thursday night? 

There's still thousands without power tonight up on the NW coast and Islands?

no but you may have heard the coping stones coming off my roof!..lying in bed it sounded like an earthquake!!!!!..it is pretty grim tho..im sure someone told me once..'get a telescope and you can look at the heavens in the crisp, clear winter nights'..if I ever meet him again im gonna punch him in da mouth!

[Charic]

Gordon......just a short drive South to Cairngorm Summit (always have high wind gusts there) they recorded 140mph ( 09/01/2015 04:00 CAIRNGORM SUMMIT INVERNESS-SHIRE 1237Mtrs  140mph ) I   think we were hitting about 85mph in Moray?

That aside. just spotted Lovejoy with the 8x40s, but a lot of light pollution here. Tried the 15x70's ( a little closer but no more detail) and too wet / very windy between   passing clouds  to set up the Skyliner.

[baggywrinkle]

Saw it on Saturday night from Seething just outside Norwich at the Norwich Astronomical Soc' site. Managed to see it naked eye too as Seething has nice dark skies to the south.

[xanthiax]

I've had thick cloud for over a week! I'm gonna say the weather is picking on me

[nicoscy]

I

I've just realised that's hardly any information but what I meant to say was it was a hazy object in the right vicinity but looked round and didn't have a tail.

If you are viewing from a light polluted area, that's what you should expect to see. Travel to a dark site and that's another story.

Hoping for good weather this weekend just because I want to take that one hour drive to catch the tail...

[Telescope40]

Finally after wots seemed like cloudy evenings for a fortnight, bit of a break tonite and found within a minute of so. fuzzy misty blob.using my 20 x 80 binos. Nice one for the observing log. Still misty tbh so hoping may clear further to hit it with one of my scopes.

Happy camper !!!

[Dinglem]

After reading above comments I believe I bagged it last night with Bins and telescope, looked to me like a fuzzy snowball, with a bit of averted vision could make out a bright core. Can't wait for my new focuser to turn up from FLO as struggle to fine tune with my dodgy fingers.

[Sven Buttler]

Found it, at last!! A bit to the left of Xi Tauri (according to Sky Safari). Looks a bit like a snowball, no tail but absolutely stunning nonetheless. Unfortunately I ran out of batteries no more image stab but I'll give another shot tomorrow.

[Astro Imp]

Great, pleased that you've found it, good luck for tomorrow.

Unfortunately there is no hope for me at the moment as the weather has been against any observing but I did manage a brief session with the bins on Saturday and tracked it down than.

[house]

What sort of equipment or magnification would you need to discern any color? I've been using a super entry-level 60mm scope at about 35x (I think!) and haven't seen a hint of green.

I'm mostly curious about what causes the color loss here--hypothetically, would I need a wider aperture or higher magnification?

[John]

I've not seen colour in the comet in my 4.7" or 12" scopes. Some eyes are more sensitive to colour in astro objects than others I think.

[Qualia]

What sort of equipment or magnification would you need to discern any color? I've been using a super entry-level 60mm scope at about 35x (I think!) and haven't seen a hint of green....would I need a wider aperture or higher magnification?

Some nights I've been out and haven't seen an inkling of colour, other nights I've been out and have seen subtle misty green-blue hue to the comet. It's not really down to aperture for I've seen and not seen colour in both a 10" and 3" but I have noticed that although the comet takes magnification well, that is, Lovejoy doesn't become a blur at higher magnifications, yet a significant increment in power doesn't appear to add anything to the comet. As such, the best views I've had so far have been with the small 3" f6 and a 24mm eyepiece, rendering about 20x and a field of view of around 3.8º.

As John says, I guess one's optical physiology has much to do with what one sees but I that doesn't necessarily mean you need great eye sight. I'm myopic, wear glasses, and unless I'm working with eyepieces, everything without them is a blur 

[Dave In Vermont]

What sort of equipment or magnification would you need to discern any color? I've been using a super entry-level 60mm scope at about 35x (I think!) and haven't seen a hint of green.

I'm mostly curious about what causes the color loss here--hypothetically, would I need a wider aperture or higher magnification?

Images you see in pictures people post in here, as well as in magazines, are made by time-exposures. A CCD, or film, continues to make something that looks dim and grey to our eyes into these colourful pictures. Light continues to build up on the film/pixels - and this makes things brighter and brighter. And this process allows colour to build up as well. Our eyes don't work this way. After about 15 - 20 minutes we become dark-adapted, but that's as far as our optical sensory-apparatus goes.

So larger scopes, or better eyepieces, won't help getting more colour - maybe a bit will come out - It will bring out more detail and result in brighter and larger views. If you seriously want colour, I suggest looking into video-astrophotography. With a steep learning-curve and good equipment, you can transfer the images that your scope is seeing through a video-camera onto a screen - your computer or a designated monitor - and the image will be in colour. This is a relatively new field, and it's growing daily. You're not the only one who desires to see colourful images way out in space.

Intrigued? Check out the 'Video' forum here in SGL.

Clear & Colourful Skies,

Dave

[house]

Thanks for the responses! And Dave, thanks for the info. I've read about image stacking and regular ol' astrophotography, but have never heard of video-astrophotography! I'm trying to take this hobby one learning curve at a time though, haha.

[ghostdance]

And the images, from the little I know about this, take hours in terms of multiple exposures and hard work - which is why I have no plans to go into AP! Visual, even tho mostly monochrome, is a much quicker hit! Sketching on the other hand......to me, *that's* intriguing, even my one shabby drawing of Jupiter was great fun to attempt, and as has been said elsewhere, I can see how sketching aids my observing.

Funfunfun!

[Dave In Vermont]

Actually, in video-AP, it takes only a matter of seconds to have what the scope is pulling into the video-cam and having it live on a screen. This can be very cool indeed if you're showing lots of people "what's up?" No more waiting to take turns at the eyepiece - everyone can just look at the screen. Another ++PLUS++ is that low-cost video-cams can be used. One doesn't have to spend their kid's college-fund to afford workable gear.

Clear Skies & -20F with Wind,

Dave (you just can't win! )

[house]

Sketching on the other hand......

You know, I use my phone for just about everything when I'm observing, including sketching! I have a Galaxy Note 3, which comes stock with a stylus and excellent drawing software. I also use an app called Twilight that dims the screen and tints it red throughout all other apps as well. It's much more handy than traditional sketching, IMO, because of the tools and brushes available. Airbrushing Lovejoy's coma, for instance, or adding "glow" to stars. My setup is pretty low-power, though, so nothing that I see is terribly difficult to draw anyway haha.

Lately I've been doing my observation journaling completely on my phone as well--I'll do sketches, note taking, and take screen captures of whatever apps I'm using and scrapbook them all together. Everything is red on black and night vision friendly. Love it.

[Kriss Craik]

Managed to find it last night, still new to this game but the maps made life really easy. Thanks

[house]

Kriss, did you use a map with Lovejoy's location already pinpointed? Or one of the charts that just shows its path and roughly where it will be for a given date? I've only used the latter, and it definitely adds a little "adventure" to it.

[nicoscy]

Here's a map for the evening tonight. Location doesn't matter for this so feel free to use it wherever you are.

Courtesy of SkyTools 3. This is naked eye view but with my Nikon AE which have an FOV of 6.1 for the comet FOV (the circle around the comet).

It is easy pickings now, in a nice triangular formation with Aldebaran and the Pleiades.

I just wish the weather was more cooperative here... Next window will be Saturday night hopefully...