Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

[HaleBopp2007]

It's been a long time again and the camera is frozen again... Cmon, when is LASCO going to make videos without lagging! 

[Corncrake]

1 hour ago, verreli said:

It does seem to have an elongated head.  Time will tell.

It does seem to be a bit 'lumpy' ! Gulp,,, two bits already ??
There are not many pixels to play with but to while-away a bit more lockdown time I had a play :

Original in the middle,
Unsharp mask on the left
Richardson–Lucy deconvolution on the right (working on the star to make it a bit more 'star like' ! )

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Corncrake

[Paul M]

I can't remember its name but I have memories of watching a one promising comet passing through the field of LASCO instruments some years ago. It evaporated before our very eyes, literally!!

It was a true Sungrazer so a very close perihelion. Didn't have a chance really...

Come on NEO, you can do it...!

[verreli]

4 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Come on NEO, you can do it...!

Morpheus thinks it's the 'one'.

[Paul M]

5 minutes ago, verreli said:

Morpheus thinks it's the 'one'.

[Corncrake]

13 minutes ago, Paul M said:

I can't remember its name but I have memories

bad bad memories, oh the demons! , , ISON something or other ?

[Paul M]

3 minutes ago, Corncrake said:

ISON something or other ?

Indeed, that was the fellow. It was an interesting event though. 

They don't make comets like they used to....

[Corncrake]

11 minutes ago, Paul M said:

Indeed, that was the fellow. It was an interesting event though. 

They don't make comets like they used to....

They do seem to be a bit fragile these days !

Gosh 28Nov2013 perihelion doesnt time fly-by !

blow by blow in C3,  C2,  and STEREO  on youtube

I do hope my two lumps with perhaps two tails in my enhanced pic previously may be artifacts introduced by my fiddling !

Edited June 22, 2020 by Corncrake

[Paul M]

12 minutes ago, Corncrake said:

blow by blow in C3,  C2,  and STEREO  on youtube

Thanks for that. The fine detail had escaped me.

Wasn't that a thing of beauty? You could almost feel the stresses on it in that unbelievably tight perihelion passage.

[HaleBopp2007]

Well, the coma of the comet looks nice, but the tail, for now, I can't say much about it... It's also 2,5 mag, so the tail is still developing. By now it's looking quite short. And the same thing happens again! Why is the LASCO camera so lagged?

https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/1024/latest.html

Edited June 23, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[HaleBopp2007]

I think this photo of hyakutake resembles a little (for me at least) the aspect of the comet:

Edited June 23, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[HaleBopp2007]

1 hour ago, HaleBopp2007 said:

It's also 2,5 mag, so the tail is still developing. By now it's looking quite short.

Maybe it's that short because it's practically pointing to the LASCO cameras. I saw recently Bradfield comet at perihelion from C3 and it looks similar to NEOWISE, except it's pointing far from SOHO. The "elongated coma" of NEOWISE can be a bright, long tail with a round coma. 

Edited June 23, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[verreli]

If you look at it on the animation, the tail looks to extend faintly beyond the camera FoV.  Still over 2 weeks before it's visible from my location but the optimism is building.

[HaleBopp2007]

Yeah, I hope this thing has a longer tail that it shows there... 

[Corncrake]

It still looks (even more ?) ominously lumpy to me !

( I feel a bit like Frankie Howerd's Senna the Soothsayer "Oh Woe, thrice woe" ! )

Edited June 23, 2020 by Corncrake

[HaleBopp2007]

That's probably because the comet is pointing to Soho. 

[HaleBopp2007]

Finally a new image! I think the thing that is happening is what I said before... 

 

[HaleBopp2007]

The comet is not looking bad at all. It's actually better than before. Could someone please estimate its magnitude at this photo? I estimate the comet is between +2 and +1,5 mag (At least I hope so...).

PD. The star on the right is mag +2.75

Edited June 24, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[verreli]

Spaceweather had it at Mag 3 but I think it's brighter than that, perhaps 2.4?  Still another week before perihelion.  Of more note to me is the tail which seems to extend beyond the camera FoV.  I've seen a few fuzz balls in my time but never a comet with a nice tail.  16 days and counting...

[HaleBopp2007]

Not me eather. Also, your prediction is quite reasonable... Here I show two images of the comet... There's a slight difference. I think the comet was +2.5 mag at the left at +2.2 at the right...

I've also made a magnitude curve, in which the stars are what I thougt the comet had evolved since it entered LASCO...

Edited June 24, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[HaleBopp2007]

1 hour ago, verreli said:

16 days and counting...

What do you mean with that? If it's the perihelion, there are 9 days left. But in my country it's quite in a good position at sunrise an July 7th 'till July 13th... I guess you mean the time left to the comet to appear in your place...

Edited June 24, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[Corncrake]

The good news is that it is still more or less in one piece !

The other good news is that it is BRIGHT !

How bright ? I dont think it is possible to say from these pics. all we can say is that it has a lot more saturated pixels than either of the two bright stars mag3 at 10 o'clock and mag2.85 close the sun (but in a de-sense area). How much over saturated is debatable without access to the specs of SOHO and LASCO, optics and sensor. We are seeing point source stars spread out, with an extended source also spread out

Time will tell

 

 

[HaleBopp2007]

Well, I'm already happy with tis comet being this bright! Imagine how people would react when (maybe) the comet starts developing those horizontal lines! That would mean the comet would be brighter than 1st mag!

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by HaleBopp2007

[verreli]

2 hours ago, HaleBopp2007 said:

What do you mean with that? ... I guess you mean the time left to the comet to appear in your place...

Yes, I'm quite far north in the English lake district so 10th July is the earliest I can reasonably get a good view.  On the bright side, it's further from the solstice so the skies are getting darker day by day and closer to the new moon.  Even at the higher magnitudes a bit of extra contrast helps.  I'm hoping to bag a few photos.  Bright comets don't happen very often.

[HaleBopp2007]

Yeah... This is the first time I've ever seen a comet, I'll try to bring some photos as well. The comet's coma is brightening as it had to... I expect the comet to be a bit brighter than magnitude 2.