C2017/T2 Panstarrs

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, PhotoGav said:

I would love to see a time lapse of it - anyone?!

Moving very slowly, I took some shots of it over a couple of hours recently and it hardly budged, maybe it will speed up and / or grow a tail after it's whizzed round the Sun, don't know if that means it's closer to Earth which would speed it up.

Dave

[Wiu-Wiu]

55 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

I spent some time observing this comet at the end of a good session last night. It is a hazy blob at the moment, but definitely comet like. It would be interesting to follow up the observations to see how it has moved / changed. I did wonder whether there was the suggestion of a tail, but my observing partner and I didn't agree on the direction of this potential tail, so we decided it was probably a case of averted imagination. I would love to see a time lapse of it - anyone?!

Not sure you can see it, but there's one here, made on jan. 1st:

https://www.astroforum.nl/forum/astrofotografie/astrofoto-s-zonnestelsel/1436745-komeet-pan-starrs-c-2017-t2-1-januari-2020

 

 

[PhotoGav]

26 minutes ago, Wiu-Wiu said:

Not sure you can see it, but there's one here, made on jan. 1st:

https://www.astroforum.nl/forum/astrofotografie/astrofoto-s-zonnestelsel/1436745-komeet-pan-starrs-c-2017-t2-1-januari-2020

Thank you @Wiu-Wiu - that’s an excellent time lapse, well done!

[Marvin Jenkins]

OK, at least I am not going nuts or blind. I was going to post a new thread on here titled fifth bite at T2 Panstarrs, but saw this and thought otherwise.

For some reason I love Comets, they appear to not like me. My first 46P Wirtinen was a watershed moment, but T2 Panstarrs is a different sport.

Now I must say I have had just four nights in three months and I went all DSLR on M42 and AP crazy. Great results though.

Tonight clear but the seeing isn’t great, too much moisture I think after all the rain and flooding. However, I can’t get close to finding this comet. I checked Skyhound for position, marked it on my charts...... zip.

Perhaps the conditions, perhaps I need more aperture, perhaps better navigation. I had it in a triangle between Stock 5, Stock 6, and NGC 896. I looked around that area as well and got nothing but star clusters... always a silver lining.

Am I doing something wrong?

Marvin
 

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

OK, at least I am not going nuts or blind. I was going to post a new thread on here titled fifth bite at T2 Panstarrs, but saw this and thought otherwise.

For some reason I love Comets, they appear to not like me. My first 46P Wirtinen was a watershed moment, but T2 Panstarrs is a different sport.

Now I must say I have had just four nights in three months and I went all DSLR on M42 and AP crazy. Great results though.

Tonight clear but the seeing isn’t great, too much moisture I think after all the rain and flooding. However, I can’t get close to finding this comet. I checked Skyhound for position, marked it on my charts...... zip.

Perhaps the conditions, perhaps I need more aperture, perhaps better navigation. I had it in a triangle between Stock 5, Stock 6, and NGC 896. I looked around that area as well and got nothing but star clusters... always a silver lining.

Am I doing something wrong?

Marvin
 

Hi Marvin. This is certainly a tricky comet compared to 46/P but I think it should be achievable for you. I’ve observed it with my 10” dob many times from my local dark site and from my back garden which is NELM 5.5 on a good night. I think the normal rules for DSO observing apply. Good transparency and no Moon are needed. I normally start with a lower power view to locate it. In my dob that’s 60x with a 4.2mm exit pupil. I then go to 133x with 1.9mm exit pupil to gain some contrast and get a clearer view. I would concentrate on the exit pupil values as opposed to the magnification. It’s a really nice comet which is starting to show a small tail, based on my last couple of observations. 

Best of luck finding it. I share your love comets. I’ve been lucky enough to see 9 since 2017  

[Marvin Jenkins]

The transparency was poor last night and I was out early to beat the moon rise. Hopefully clear skies in a week as we approach new moon so I can get out a little later and observe this one.

Marv

[Littleguy80]

Conditions weren’t the best but I took on the challenge of observing this comet with my 80mm frac. It’s a whole different ball game to the dob. I started with the Baader zoom. On the 8mm setting I thought maybe. Switched to 9mm BGO and got another maybe. Then went to the 12.5mm BGO and, in averted vision, it started to come through a bit more decisively. A definite edge observation but they all count. I checked afterwards and the 12.5mm BGO gives the magical 2mm exit pupil which seems to strike the right balance for DSO’s. A good ortho helps too. The view through the dob of this comet is much more impressive but I really enjoyed the challenge of finding it with smaller aperture. 

[Davey-T]

 

4 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

I really enjoyed the challenge of finding it with smaller aperture. 

A new challenge for you Neil C/2019  Y4 Atlas nice and high and may be brightening, was hoping to have a go at it tonight but contrary to forecast it's cloudy here.

Dave

[Littleguy80]

21 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

 

A new challenge for you Neil C/2019  Y4 Atlas nice and high and may be brightening, was hoping to have a go at it tonight but contrary to forecast it's cloudy here.

Dave

Exciting! I’ll look out for that one. Thanks for the heads up  

[Wiu-Wiu]

8 hours ago, Davey-T said:

 

A new challenge for you Neil C/2019  Y4 Atlas nice and high and may be brightening, was hoping to have a go at it tonight but contrary to forecast it's cloudy here.

Dave

It has been estimated at M8 - M9 recently, so it is brighter than the software is stating it is. 

[bish]

Tried with my 250p last night but couldn"t see it. Light pollution and air quality are against me!

[andrew63]

Just had my first view of comet t2  panstarrs in my ST80. Seeing was good but only visible as a faint hazy patch. Seen at 30x but better at 40x.                      andrew 

[John]

Panstarrs is better than Y4 Atlas now. Larger as well.

 

[Hypernova]

I managed to catch it tonight with the 200p dob. Kind of tricky from my back garden with the amount of light pollution around but it's definitely there and in better condition than Y4 from the last time I saw that on the 22nd of March.

[Marvin Jenkins]

On 14/04/2020 at 00:35, John said:

Panstarrs is better than Y4 Atlas now. Larger as well.

 

Thank you John. Gave me the push to try for the ninth time for this comet and last night I was successful. After bagging Atlas two nights ago which was so hard, I cannot believe how easy this was.

Skyhound chart bang on the money, thank you. Short star hop and “Oh there it is”. No averted vision this time, direct in the ep.

Bigger and brighter than Atlas with some core brightness and what appeared to be a hint of elongation. Two new comets in three days and my fifth overall.

46P Wirtinen, Iwamoto, Africano, Atlas and T2 Panstarrs. Going to keep a track of it if I can and try for my first Comet picture.

Happy hunting Marvin

 

[jam1e1]

managed to find panstarrs last night - was better than Atlas - first comet seen in over a year  Also saw a nice meteorite about 1047pm that really brightened to about mag 1 - was about 20 deg from horizon and below the plough - short but good night last night!