Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson

[Dave In Vermont]

I'm unclear on how this magnitude is being found, but here's Carte du Ciel's take in Comet Johnson at present:

 

Comet

C/2015 V2 (Johnson)

Magnitude: 6.7

Phase: 29 °

Distance: 0.8111au

Solar distance: 1.6400au

Velocity: n/a

Estimated tail length: 0.05au

Date: 2017-06-04 20h11m20s

ref: 46/2017-06-02

Hourly motion: 02'53.6" PA:200° dRA:-04.25s dDec:-02'42.7"

Coordinates: Apparent Topocentric

Apparent RA: 14h38m03.17s DE:+18°17'50.4"

Mean of the date RA: 14h38m02.72s DE:+18°17'40.5"

Mean J2000 RA: 14h37m14.03s DE:+18°22'10.3"

Ecliptic  L: +210°22'49" B:+31°53'26"

Galactic  L: +18°43'47" B:+64°08'56"

Visibility for your observatory:

Burlington, VT 2017-06-04 20h11m20s ( EDT )

Universal Time: 2017-06-05T00:11:20 JD=2457909.50788

Local sidereal time: 12h12m56s

Hour angle: 21h34m53s

Azimuth: 116°55'43"

Altitude: +50°57'06.0"

Geometric altitude: +50°56'18.8"

Airmass: 1.3

Rise:15h23m16s Azimuth:64°13'

Transit:22h36m03s +65°49'

Set:05h52m46s Azimuth:295°47'

 

In any case - it's looking very bright already - and down near Arcturus. Sounds like an impressive showing for a good, low-power & wide-field instrument. Clouded-out here with rain - otherwise I'd be setting-up my beloved ST80 with a nice wide-field eyepiece.

Evil-Dave Mode:

With all these sales-pitches exploding everyday in my email for gadgets to see the total-eclipse of the Sun on August 21st, I'm getting very tempted to offer: The Super-Solar-Eclipse Umbrella & Rain-Coat set!

I'll go away now.....

Dave

[SonnyE]

With a clear umbrella option?

[andrew63]

Just had a look at the comet tonight around midnight with no moon to interfere. It was noticeably more diffuse than just a few weeks ago, at 19x and 38x in the 4" . Although it's not really dark this time of year, was more like a faint galaxy to me, and the brighter core had lost it's sparkle. Perhaps a bit fainter than 8 mag. now.

 

andrew