Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak Ephemeris

[Coastliner]

Hi All,

I had my first go at imaging a comet a couple of nights ago,

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak,

and started thinking about how this, or any comet, could be tracked.  After a lot of digging around I finally noticed that EQMOD has a custom tracking rate button. So, can anyone tell me where I find the RA and Dec rates for this and other comets? Or is it possible to work this out from live data, in a form that can be entered into the custom fields in EQMOD?

TIA,

 

Neil.

[chrisshillito]

Here are a couple of videos tutorials you might find interesting:

 

 

 

 

[Coastliner]

Thanks Chris, much appreciated. I don't appear to have a CustomTrack.txt - has this changed recently?

[Coastliner]

Chris, sorry, forget that!!!!  Found it!!

 

[Coastliner]

All set up and running on the ASCOM simulated scope, tested by tracking the comet with sidereal and custom rates.

Many thanks again Chris, hopefully I will get the chance to track it tonight.

Neil.

[Guy Wells]

Currently 5.01 "/min

 

[AllanJ]

Neil, I used PHD2 (free) comet tracking. One way to get the tracking data is through Skychart - Cartes du Ciel  (free). Load the latest comet data under Setup > Solar System >Comet and then locate the comet. Right click on the comet will give some ephemeris data, but this is not quite what you need for mount tracking. Click Setup > Manage Tool Box Script.  Table of mostly empty lines with F keys numbered. Click on an empty line and select the bit with PHDguiding. Assuming you are guiding in PHD2, then in PHD2 select Tools > Comet Tracking. Back in CdC, click the Connect button then left click on the comet. The rates should be displayed in both CdC and PHD2.

However, when I tried this the other night, it tracked far too fast. But I think this may be because I had not defined the focal length and pixel size in PHD2 - I'll be trying that next time I get a clear night.

So, I used Rate Training in PHD2, which is not that difficult, and I did a series of images, 5 minutes each, that I manually stacked. I think I could still have tweaked the rate a bit better, but I need some clear skies.

My image is attached,

Allan

 

 

[Coastliner]

Guy Wells, AllanJ, thanks for your responses and apologies for not responding sooner, for some reason SGL stopped giving me reply notifications.

Allan, I noticed the comet tracking option in PHD2 only a couple of nights ago, I will investigate this. I hope that Stellarium rather than CdC can accommodate this.

Moved on to C/2015 V2 Johnson now.

Cheers,

Neil.