Comet 123p/West Hartley?

[Thalestris24]

Had some clear skies (on and off) last night! Shock horror! Anyway, amongst a few other potential targets I came across Comet 123p in Stellarium. I thought I'd have a go but not sure if I actually imaged it. Maybe somebody could confirm (or not!). It was 11 x 60s live stacked with master dark and flat in SharpCap Pro with the minicam5s and 80mm APO with 0.8x reducer. Stretched as stretched can be

I've marked what I thought could be 123p with the green arrow. The star I marked with the red arrow is a bit strange as it doesn't appear in Stellarium. Maybe someone with cdc could compare?

The image was taken at about 23:44-23:54 last night. Here are some rotated snips from my Stellarium:

 

I expected something to have been more smeared than is over the exposure time so I'm not confident I've imaged the target I wanted. I'm not experienced with comets and previously my Stellarium location was wrong for 46p - again maybe someone could confirm 123p's location last night. Ta.

Louise

[Davey-T]

Could be, the green arrow looks about the right spot, as you say a job to tell unless you take some images a while apart to detect movement.

Pray for another bit of clear sky to have another shot at it 

Dave

[Thalestris24]

8 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Could be, the green arrow looks about the right spot, as you say a job to tell unless you take some images a while apart to detect movement.

Pray for another bit of clear sky to have another shot at it 

Dave

Well, some recent images I've seen on the net have shown a fair bit of movement which is why I was querying it. Do you use Stellarium? Do you have the same position?

Mind you, looking at it now, it doesn't seem to have moved all that  much...

 

[Davey-T]

I use Stellarium, CCD and Sky Safari and they often disagree on the exact position.

Not much mention of this comet on various sites, It's quoted as approaching mag15 so very dim.

Speed is dependent on where in it's orbit it is, if passing round the Sun and hence the Earth movement can be observed in real time, if it's heading off into space directly away from us it won't appear to move much over time.

If we get a clear patch I'll see if it's visible in the 10"SCT.

Dave

Magnitude is integrated so not as bright as a mag 15 star.

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, Davey-T said:

If we get a clear patch I'll see if it's visible in the 10"SCT.

Dave

Wish I had one of those! And somewhere to use it...

[Thalestris24]

Anyone have any info on the red-arrowed star in the op?

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, Thalestris24 said:

Wish I had one of those! And somewhere to use it...

Have you taken your trolley for a trip yet ?

Dave

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, Thalestris24 said:

Anyone have any info on the red-arrowed star in the op?

No it doesn't appear in Stellarium but that not unusual, I sometimes have trouble matching images to Stellarium as some stars appear to be missing and some added 

Dave

[Thalestris24]

28 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

No it doesn't appear in Stellarium but that not unusual, I sometimes have trouble matching images to Stellarium as some stars appear to be missing and some added 

Dave

Oh well, I won't lose sleep over it! On another matter, I've been puzzled why my SharpCap platesolving has been out - since I reinstalled Eqmod recently. Looks like it was the epoch setting so hopefully next time I'll be on target instead of having to make adjustments... d'uh...

Louise

[Davey-T]

Comet 123P appears to be moving north at about 0.1 degrees an hour, so pretty slow.

Dave

[Thalestris24]

13 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Comet 123P appears to be moving north at about 0.1 degrees an hour, so pretty slow.

Dave

Yeah, I did a comparison across days in Stellarium and it is quite slow, but definitely won't be in the same place if I get another chance to image it!

Louise

[Martin Meredith]

Hi Louise

The red arrowed star is GSC 1984-0723 according to Sky Safari. And you seem to have captured the comet! Comets always look more impressive on Sky Safari...

cheers

Martin

[Thalestris24]

39 minutes ago, Martin Meredith said:

Hi Louise

The red arrowed star is GSC 1984-0723 according to Sky Safari. And you seem to have captured the comet! Comets always look more impressive on Sky Safari...

cheers Martin

Oh ok - thanks Martin! I don't recognise that catalogue number though and it doesn't google but not important really. Thanks for taking the trouble, much appreciated

Louise

[Davey-T]

Just had a look at it after waiting for it to clear neighbours rooftops, pretty underwhelming as comets go 

Dave

[Thalestris24]

2 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Just had a look at it after waiting for it to clear neighbours rooftops, pretty underwhelming as comets go 

Dave

Yeah, not even moving much... Did it appear green or maybe it's too far away for any colour? Hopefully I'll get a chance to image another one day.

Louise

[Davey-T]

Couldn't make out any colour, took a couple of B&W pic's will have a look at them tomorrow, just trying to get a better shot of the super nova but the skies a bit murky here, at least the wind's dropped.

Dave

[Thalestris24]

7 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Couldn't make out any colour, took a couple of B&W pic's will have a look at them tomorrow, just trying to get a better shot of the super nova but the skies a bit murky here, at least the wind's dropped.

Dave

I think it's pretty horrid nearly everywhere tonight and maybe for the next few days, at least  At least we've not had the snow like in Europe - yet!

[Davey-T]

The clear bits last night were a lot clearer than tonights, may get some clear here on Thursday according to forecast but it could all change by then.

Dave

[Davey-T]

22 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

I think it's pretty horrid nearly everywhere tonight and maybe for the next few days, at least  At least we've not had the snow like in Europe - yet!

Looks clear up your way on the Sat 24 images tonight, clouds here.

Dave

[Thalestris24]

3 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Looks clear up your way on the Sat 24 images tonight, clouds here.

Dave

Nah, solid cloud then rain