Comet c/2017 01 Asassn

[Cjg]

Good evening,

Has anyone managed to capture this yet?

Have not had an opportunity to try yet, so would welcome advice from anyone who has seen / imaged this.

Thanks,

Chris

[Davey-T]

Dave

[Cjg]

Thank you Dave! Maybe a chance at the SGL Star party in 2 weeks time!

Chris

[Davey-T]

Just now, Cjg said:

Thank you Dave! Maybe a chance at the SGL Star party in 2 weeks time!

Chris

Had a couple of goes but haven't actually found it yet

Dave

[alanjgreen]

I bagged this comet this morning with the 20" dob

Here are my notes...

Comet C/2017 O1 - This comet was easy to find with the 21E as a large fuzzy patch. This is a big (but faint) comet. I tried the 21E, 13E, 10E & 8E on the target and found the 10mm gave the best view at around x200 magnification. The small core was visible in the 10mm but the fuzzy surrounding patch is big and makes it hard to see.

 

[cotterless45]

Tiny bit faint for smaller apertures , Nick.

[alanjgreen]

1 hour ago, cotterless45 said:

Tiny bit faint for smaller apertures , Nick.

It was brighter than 15. More like 10. (I looked for another mag12 comet but I did not find it (too light) so it was brighter than 12).

It is one of the larger comets that I have observed, but that seemed to make it fainter (due to being spread over a larger area?)

[pjsmith_6198]

I was able to see this a couple of weeks ago.   It was pretty large and diffuse and very faint.   My experience was similar to Alan's.  My best views came using higher magnifications.   In my case a 7mm giving about 180x.  The core was visible with high mags but I didn't see with using lower.   Once the Moon disappears it should be more visible.   It reaches perihelion in mid October and will be in good position to view, pretty high between Perseus and Auriga

[John]

I tried for this one a couple of nights ago with my ED120 refractor. No success but it was a moonlit night. I'm going to wait until the moon is out of the way then try again.

[Littleguy80]

Dedicated a good amount of time to trying to see this last night. I was using SkySafari as my guide to location. Found the bright pair of stars, HD 28996/28997 easily enough. The comet is listed at mag 12.1 in SkySafari. I was able to see stars that were listed at just under mag 12 with direct vision but couldn't see the comet. Based on Alan's comments about it's size, I would suspect it's got a much lower surface brightness than mag 12.1. I tried a number of different sizes of exit pupil to try and catch a glimpse but ended up drawing a blank. Seems like this needs darker skies. I used the iPhone dark sky meter app which gave a reading of 19.54 SQM. I'm not sure how accurate that reading is but gives you an idea of the skies I was observing under. I was equally unsuccessful with M1 though the Moon was starting to rise at that point which doesn't help, of course. A bit disappointing after comet Johnson earlier in the year but it wouldn't be fun if everything was easy to see and find!

[Davey-T]

Had another go at Asassn last night but the Moon rose just as I got round to it, I think I was in the right spot but couldn't find it with 10"SCT, didn't get round to plate solving it.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Has anyone actually seen this damn thing in a "normal" scope?

Just had another go with the 10"SCT and can see no sign of it, found Hip 21823 but no sign of the comet that should have been nearby, used a selection of Ethos and 31 Nagler.

Moons come up now so given up.

Dave

 

[goodricke1]

I saw it two weeks ago in an 8-inch, just above the sky background. It's still not visible in 15 x 70 binos and with perihelion tomorrow it's not getting any better. From a casual observer's viewpoint, this one was a dud.

[John]

Dud or not, it's clear tonight so I'm going to see if I can spot it with my 12" dob

[goodricke1]

It's at perihelion in literally 5 minutes John, quick!

[John]

Failed to find this one again tonight. It's supposed to be mag 11 or so but I could not spot it with my 12" dob. Not a particularly good sky tonight though - rather to much "orange" in that direction !

 

 

[Hayduke27]

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I gave this one a pretty hard try last week, and although I am confident I was searching the correct area of sky, I didn't manage to see it.  I will try once more this week before I give up.

[pjsmith_6198]

This is a challenging comet.  It just passed perihelion, but I think it was easier to see a few of weeks ago.  I was out last night looking for this and I'm not sure I really saw it.  I was using a Z10 and had a Starry Nights chart of where it should be and didn't see it using 20mm or 10mm XW's.   I tried my Lumicon Comet filter in a 18mm BCO and with averted vision I saw very faint glow that  I couldn't hold in direct vision.   I couldn't see it using either of the XW's with the filter.   I couldn't see the comet in the BCO without the filter, but with it was barely perceptible fading in and out in averted vision.   Not sure if I really saw it.  

The Lumicon Comet filter will only work on comets with ionized gasses.    Most comets I've used it on didn't help much, but I guess this was an exception

[Hobbes]

Spotted it in the 18" Dob using a 21mm Ethos at the Breklands AS Star Party in Suffolk  on the Sunday night but it's wasn't an easy spot. It was really dark but the seeing wasn't the best, faint fuzzies were not at their most prominent.

[goodricke1]

No sign of it in 15 x 70 binos last night but I did enjoy the obvious open clusters NGC 1528 and 1545 nearby. Not sure how Messier missed those.

[alanjgreen]

I bagged this comet again last night ( after the moon had gone). It was well positioned near the zenith but boy is it hard to see. It's either dimmer than back in September or the conditions were not as good. I was using the 20" and Ethos 21 eyepiece.

it was a reasonable size at x100 but very very diffuse and faint. I tried at x200 but it was worse and returned to x100.

Alan

[John]

Well done Alan !

I think I'm going to wait for a brighter one to come along. No wonder my scopes have not shown it if you are stuggling at the zenith with your 20" !.

[Mark at Beaufort]

2 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

I bagged this comet again last night ( after the moon had gone). It was well positioned near the zenith but boy is it hard to see. It's either dimmer than back in September or the conditions were not as good. I was using the 20" and Ethos 21 eyepiece.

it was a reasonable size at x100 but very very diffuse and faint. I tried at x200 but it was worse and returned to x100.

Alan

Well done Alan. I tried last night with the 12" Dob but failed. Are you using Stellarium to locate the Comet? I ask because I have the Comet shown in two places both in Camelopardalis.

[alanjgreen]

26 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Well done Alan. I tried last night with the 12" Dob but failed. Are you using Stellarium to locate the Comet? I ask because I have the Comet shown in two places both in Camelopardalis.

My dob has Nexus push-to. I am using Sky Safari via Nexus to locate all objects.

 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Alan. I have Sky Safari on my tablet which I forgot about. I will compare the two to see if they match then wait for the Moon to be out of the way.