New Comet

[andrew63]

A new bright comet mag. 10.2  was discovered a few days ago by Don Machholz.   It was discovered visually, which is rare these days in the constellation of Virgo.  Not too much details yet.

 

andrew

[paulastro]

Sounds good, let's hope it is a long way away and will get much brighter ?

[coatesg]

Kudos - of all the places I wouldn't fancy trying to find new comets visually (and pick them apart from galaxies), that's got to be one of the worst!

[johnfosteruk]

This is Don Machholz's 12th visual discovery. Amazing.

Here's an image from this morning courtesy of Slooh.

Low precision astrometry so far puts it around 1.2 AU, probably.

[Helen]

I think we should get some data with the SGL account with Faulkes Telescope of this ?  - I'll set it up for the next few days and will post the links so that we can do the astrometry and photometry ? 

Helen

[johnfosteruk]

What a fine debut for the hairy astronomers ?

[Helen]

I hope so ?   What designation is Slooh using?  I've tried DM001, but the FT/MPC database isn't recognising it 

Helen

[Helen]

Ok, now found the official designation 2018/V1 ?   and FT recognises that ?  

I've set up a run of 6 observations, 1 x 60s per night with the 2m telescope and a sloan r' filter.  Hope the weather and the telescope scheduling cooperates!

I'll post links when the data is in.  

Now off to finish those tutorials on using Astrometrica.....

Helen

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very interesting stuff.

[bob-c]

Sounds very interesting indeed.

Bob.

[andrew63]

Some up to date info. from Sky&Telescope -  an early rise is needed !  

 

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/machholz-12th-comet/

 

andrew

[Pete Presland]

When you read Don's recent Twitter posts it makes realise just how  special  this discovery is. Such dedication and love for what he is doing is very humbling. 

"746 hours of searching since my last visual comet discovery in 2010 and on Nov. 7.53 UT I visually discovered my 12th comet and today it was confirmed!"

[johnfosteruk]

This comet is very exciting, it has brightened, and now has a faint tail.

[johnfosteruk]

MPEC just issued MPEC 2018-V151: COMET C/2018 V1 (Machholz-Fujikawa-Iwamoto)