168P

[Astralstroll]

Has anybody had a go at finding this comet yet? I've had two goes this week, but to no avail in the partially cloudy and moonlit skies. There again, M31 wasn't the easiest thing to find tonight.

[banner001]

Last night i was able to find the position in the sky where it should have been, but the clouds and then the moon scuppered me.

Tonight looks a much better opportunity, moon starts to throw light everywhere from about 23:35, so from 23:10 to 23:30 ill be out looking for it again.

 

10" Dob with 20mm Eyepiece, might take the binos out as well...

[John]

I might pop my 12 inch dob out this evening to look for this one. It's between Perseus and Auriga from the charts that I've seen. Not expecting anything bright though - maybe mag 11ish but the Sky Live website is saying mag 13.5 ???

[JamesF]

Lots of people have been saying it should be visible to the naked eye.  That seems a bit of a stretch to me.

James

[JamesF]

Hmmm.  KStars is showing it as between Aries and Taurus (and I've just updated the comet data), and rather close to the Moon.  Perhaps I'll see if Stellarium says anything different.

James

[John]

19 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Hmmm.  KStars is showing it as between Aries and Taurus (and I've just updated the comet data), and rather close to the Moon.  Perhaps I'll see if Stellarium says anything different.

James

This is what The Sky Live shows:

https://theskylive.com/where-is-168p

Assuming we are talking about the same comet 168p !

[JamesF]

Looks like KStars is almost certainly wrong then.  Stellarium puts it about a degree east of 55 Persei.

James

[banner001]

I was going by what stellarium said yesterday...visibility wasn't great but I could see some mag 10 stars and could not see the comet. 

So either stellarium was wrong, or the magnitude is under 11...no way you're gonna see it with the naked eye unless your 50 miles out to sea... 

[Mark at Beaufort]

When I read this thread I thought I remember this Comet. Checking back I found that I observed it in October 2012 when it had an outburst reaching mag 8. You never know it might do the same again.

[JamesF]

Anyone found it this evening? Allegedly I have it right in the centre of an image frame at the moment, but I'm not seeing a whole lot to write home about.

James

[Davey-T]

20 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Anyone found it this evening? Allegedly I have it right in the centre of an image frame at the moment, but I'm not seeing a whole lot to write home about.

James

No but it's dim and near the Moon, found Africano easily enough.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Africano quoted mag 11.5 is easily spotted with 10"SCT, no sign of Heregenrother but quoted mag 17 something, low and next to the Moon so not surprising.

Dave

[JamesF]

I reckon I can't have had either of them in the field of view then, though I did have some niggles with Kstars over entering co-ordinates manually.

James

[JamesF]

@SlimPaling has just pointed out in my other thread that 168P is believed to have broken up.  That being the case the data on The Sky Live would appear to be a bit misleading.

James

[Davey-T]

7 minutes ago, JamesF said:

That being the case the data on The Sky Live would appear to be a bit misleading.

Not as misleading as the meja 😂

Dave

 

[JamesF]

Very true

James