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46p/Wirtanen - Fail


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Was out just couple of minutes ago and was not able to detect it, which surprised me quite a bit.

According to magnitude forecast - it is supposed to be at its brightest tonight. There was even mention of naked eye visibility.

Instrument used: old and very much "falling apart" Russian 7x35 binocular.

Conditions: very cold, around -7C, almost clear skies (very brief break in clouds as it was snowing for whole previous day and this morning). LP is of course worsened by 40cm of snow cover (very unusual for this time of the year). A bit of haze in the air.

I managed to spot all stars marked in below screen shot (down to almost mag7 star, or 6.85 to be precise, probably extincted below mag7), but could not manage to spot the comet:

image.png.c342dd888a04e738cc7edf3b605138da.png

Maybe my chart is wrong and comet is not here tonight?

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I’m sure your chart is right. When I saw it last night with 8x42s I could’ve easily missed it if conditions had been worse because it wasn’t how I expected it. It was like a very large hazy cloud without a core. It’s raining here tonight so no chance. 

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Just now, Scooot said:

I’m sure your chart is right. When I saw it last night with 8x42s I could’ve easily missed it if conditions had been worse because it wasn’t how I expected it. It was like a very large hazy cloud without a core. It’s raining here tonight so no chance. 

Ah, no core explains it. My LP (~ mag 18 and a bit, so Bortle 7 bordering on 8 ) and Moon with a bit of haze could certainly hide coma cloud from showing any contrast changes against the sky.

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11 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Ah, no core explains it. My LP (~ mag 18 and a bit, so Bortle 7 bordering on 8 ) and Moon with a bit of haze could certainly hide coma cloud from showing any contrast changes against the sky.

Yes, completely different to when I looked though my 10” earlier in the week when it looked like a small Galaxy with a core. That night I couldn’t see it with the bins.

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19 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Instrument used: old and very much "falling apart" Russian 7x35 binocular.

Do yourself a favor and get a 60 or 70mm binocular with a 5mm or 4mm exit pupil, or even a high-power 3mm if you don't mind resting it on a mount and carrying the whole thing. Like you suspected, moonlight and urban lighting reflect off snow, and make the sky brighter than usual. Having said that, a blacker sky wouldn't look that great in a minimal binocular like a 7x35. Those are for the daytime when light is plentiful. 

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I’ve seen it the last couple of nights from a 19.0 SQM site through the latest 15x56 Zeiss binocs, but only knowing precisely where it was, but quite easy to relocate once lost: a more spread-out version of M31. Through equivalent Zeiss 8x56 it was much less visible oddly enough. And naked eye, not the slightest  chance.

Magnus

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17 minutes ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Do yourself a favor and get a 60 or 70mm binocular with a 5mm or 4mm exit pupil, or even a high-power 3mm if you don't mind resting it on a mount and carrying the whole thing. Like you suspected, moonlight and urban lighting reflect off snow, and make the sky brighter than usual. Having said that, a blacker sky wouldn't look that great in a minimal binocular like a 7x35. Those are for the daytime when light is plentiful. 

Yes, I know, I'd been looking at decent 50mm bins for some time now, but I have not decided yet. I'm cyclopsing with bins as well, as my right eye is crap :D I have both diopter and astigmatism on it, and have not been wearing glasses for very long time - enough for my mind to completely switch to left eye for most things - it has now become dominant eye, and I use it for all astro observations. At one time I tried to find nice monocular, but none are readily available like binoculars are, and I don't want to dismantle any binoculars to turn them into monoculars. Anyway, I just might get decent binoculars eventually even if I use only one eye to observe.

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51 minutes ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Having said that, a blacker sky wouldn't look that great in a minimal binocular like a 7x35. Those are for the daytime when light is plentiful.

I haven't tried it in my 7x35s, but with a 5mm exit pupil, they are generally pretty good for widefield observing somewhere dark.

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I've just been observing comet 46P with a 70mm refractor and 7x35 binoculars. It's not naked eye yet but it seems to be about as bright as the open cluster M35 in Gemini currently so if you can see that you should be able to pick up the comet.

The comet is not quite as exensive a patch of nebulous light as M35 but not far off that size.

 

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To look and not see is not a “fail”.  To not look is a fail.   I bagged it through my 8x30s last Weds night, but only because I was imaging it at the time and could line the bins up along the scope.  It was a soft disc of greyish light only slightly brighter towards the middle, maybe about half full moon diameter and visible only with averted vision.  Not sure how the mag 3 estimate was made.  When I defocused beta Ursa Minor in the bins to the same diameter, that seemed much brighter.

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No worries; I've only been able to spot it twice with my binos, and I even had to hold my breath because the slightest bit of fogging up the lens would make it disappear, as would the littelest of hazyness in the air. 

It's just that puffy :) 

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