Lovejoy and Synscan

[mickjackson]

Hi guys.

Noob question.

Id love to see Lovejoy but being a noob my star-hopping skills are useless right now.

I know a few but would struggle to find Lovejoy before its gone..

Is there an easy way to find and track it using my Synscan once im aligned ??

Many thanx...

[yelsac]

Not too sure about the synscan

Don't know what setup you're using but if you've got a laptop running stellarium you can load on specific comets plug it direct into your handset & it will take you straight to it.

Thats the way I did it otherwise I think I would still be trying to find it now!!

[mickjackson]

Hi.

I could attach a laptop and stellarium but I dont have the cable.

Were due clear skies for saturday nite so its too late to order a cable for then.

Was hoping I could punch some details in somewhere n slew straight to it....

mick

[Ouroboros]

You can put the absolute position of the comet into synscan. You can find 'em for Lovejoy here http://theskylive.com/c2014q2-tracker

[Ouroboros]

Sorry, forgot to mention that one of the options is to input a user defined object. On my SkyWatcher system it's called a User Object on the hand controller.

[Ouroboros]

.. Oh, and another thing :-) there's a nice map showing where it is on this page of sky and telescope. Still very visible through bins.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/comet-lovejoy-shines/

[cotterless45]

It's still an easy binocular target. Last time I got it in the fov and switched on the RA motor. It tracked fine, over several hours you'll notice it shift slightly through star fields.

With Synscan, just put it in "user objects" edit to enter the RA and dec and save. You can then return to it , if you're out there for hours (some hope !)

If it's gone from the fov , try less magnification. It's not whizzing through that fast !

Nick.

[mickjackson]

Thank you guys.

Ill try it out..

:-)

[skfboiler]

You can put the absolute position of the comet into synscan. You can find 'em for Lovejoy here http://theskylive.com/c2014q2-tracker

Yes, that is how I found Comet Jacques last year. I found the RA and DA in TheSkyLive and entered them into the Utility menu of the comtroller. The scope slewed to it. I just had to make a couple of fine adjustments. After centering, I saved the location in the Utilities menu and was able to go back to it during my observing session that night.

[pevsfreedom]

If it's any help I used binoculars and found it in about 5 minutes, and have stargazed for about.. 1 month as of today. Maybe binoculars will help?