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Observing C/2013 US10 - Catalina

Mark at Beaufort

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Ccolvin968

Ccolvin968

Posted
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New Years night (31st into the 1st) is looking VERY promising for my first observation of Catalina, and so is the night of the first. It'll be a balmy 14 degrees F... It's the first clear night in over a month for me. Nice still air, no wind... I'm hoping this holds up. I'm so excited!!! I'm making my 2016 target list as I type. :-) a comet on the first day of a year is not a bad way to start out!!

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spike95609

spike95609

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First decent night for weeks and it coincided with new year's eve! I was out at a friends and had a jolly time of it, getting back home around 3am. I grabbed the 15x70s, and despite a fair bit of hazy cloud drifting over and it being in the worst place of my sky for light pollution, I did nevertheless see a definite smudge very close to Arcturus. Another one ticked off the list. Then I went to bed.

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bish

bish

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First decent night for weeks and it coincided with new year's eve! I was out at a friends and had a jolly time of it, getting back home around 3am. I grabbed the 15x70s, and despite a fair bit of hazy cloud drifting over and it being in the worst place of my sky for light pollution, I did nevertheless see a definite smudge very close to Arcturus. Another one ticked off the list. Then I went to bed.

Same here. Got home 3am, the comet was in a poor part of the sky and it was murky. Could only just see it fleetingly with 15x70 bins
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John Baker

John Baker

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My first attempt at stacking, 3 x 1.3" second exposures, f5.6 at ISO 40,000 - shot on my 100-400 lens fitted on a 1Dx - shot on the morning  of 1st Jan at around 2:00 - there was quite a lot of low cloud around which did not help - the second shot is a single exposure, I was trying to get the tail so increased the exposure to 2" and upped the ISO to 51,200.   Shots taken on the Haldon Hills above Teignmouth, Devon - hopefully I will get another window to try again...  Final picture is a wide shot of the southern sky while waiting for Catalina to appear.

post-45469-0-72335000-1451779275_thumb.j

post-45469-0-72802800-1451779281_thumb.j

post-45469-0-48917600-1451779460_thumb.j

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Paul73

Paul73

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After months of cloud. I finally got it this morning!

What a lovely little comet. Nice and high, colourful, bright center with a nice offset halo. Not much in the way of a tail but I was delighted to finally view Catalina. Surprisingly, it looked better at low mag against the star field.

Paul

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Ccolvin968

Ccolvin968

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I'm hoping it gets clear again before she zooms off and starts to fade dramatically. I saw Catalina through 10x42's last Saturday morning through my upstairs window. It was a small fuzzy ball in bins, and same thing last night. I REALLY want to get my 10" dob on it, but with highs in the 2-5 F range, it might be very prohibitive. I might just have to be happy with the binocular view. Great shots for sure! I love the last one you took. Beautiful shot!

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John

John

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I picked Catalina up with 10x50 binoculars tonight. It's around 1/2 way between Arcturus and Eta Ursa Major right now. Billed as magnitude 6.5. Not spectacular with the binoculars. I got my 4" refractor out and it looked much nicer although no sign of a tail tonight. Condensed and fairly bright nucleus with fainder haxy "halo" around it. Not a large object compared to some but nice to see it :icon_biggrin:

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cotterless45

cotterless45

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Got up at three this morning to clear skies, hurrah. Got some clothes on ,boots, jacket and eps. Opened the back door and it was raining. Waited around for half an hour and in the gaps got a beautiful bright view of Catalina, coming up to Alkaid. A lovely warm glow that made up for the ,

clear sky forecasts

Frost forecasts

The local tv forecast which ends at 6pm, there being no weather at night.

Nick.

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andrew63

andrew63

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Just had a look at Catalina, first time in the evening.  Conditions were tough, low down, moonlight and a bit of horizon haze. It was not easy in the 10x50s - barely seen as a faint glow a couple of degrees below Alkaid, but a bit easier in the the telescope.  It's certainly less obvious than a few weeks ago.

andrew

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Special K

Special K

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Last night it was still looking good in the Dob.

I'm really enjoying checking it out quickly every session.

Paul

It's nice having a comet around to add to the mix! I've had a few sessions including it and still seems best to me at a relatively low 50x.

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iapa

iapa

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Tried to catch C/2013 US10 last night

SKYWATCHER 80mm, AVX, star sense, SkyQ wifi, skyportal on iPad

canon70D, prime focus, ISO1600, F5, 60s, EOS utility, OSX

tweaked and cropped in Lightroom on iPhone 6s+

Uploaded to astronomers.net to check I was in the right place ?

had hoped for something a little better, like a tail or two. Will see is stacking some images helps?

 

image.jpeg

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Paz

Paz

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I tried spotting this with a 10x50 hand-held monocular last night. I star hopped from in a straight line from Ruchbah and epsilon in Cassiopia past iota and then past Gamma in Camelopardalis to three stars HD32650,31590, and 31312 looking just below and to the right (in alt/az terms) but I couldn;t see anything. I understand it is about magnitude 6.6 and about 160 million km away from us now but I guess that its light is spread out a bit and not a point like a star which would be easy.

When I got home I realised I had memorised the spot it was in the day before(!!!) and actually it was below and to the left of the three stars I was using as a reference but I did check around the area and didn't see it.

Next try will be either with darker skies (after the street lights go out) or with something bigger - if there is ever another break in the clouds.

 

Also, I understand that whilst it is going fast enough to escape the solar system, it is only just going fast enough. At perihelion (about 123 million km from the sun)  it was travelling at 46,400m/s  which is only 25m/s faster than escape velocity.

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