Comet c/2017 T2 observation report and finder chart

[Dr Strange]

If I remember correctly Ursa Major is decently visible from the UK and the EU. If so then there is a comet that you all might be interested in. It is c/2017 T2. It is just off of M81 (see image). I got to look at it tonight. 

I used M81 as the "jumping off" point. I put "jumping off" in quotes because seeing was only average, I was using a 120mm APO, in red/white Bortle 7/8 skies, and could only see M82 as a very very faint small puff of smoke and couldn't see M81 at all. I was using a Nexus DSC on a DM6 and I had it aligned with a 0.65 warp error which is pretty darn good. I was using my TSA-120 with 16mm Nagler. That gave me a 56x magnification and a 1. 46 degree FOV. No filter. I need to pick up a comet filter at some point if I can find one. 

It was very faint with only a hint of a tail.  Chuffed as a wee since this is the first time I saw a comet in one of my scopes. The only other time I had seen a comet was in a friend's 16" Dob from my dark sky site which is a dark green/Bortle 3/4 site and he was using a Lumicon Comet filter. Moved on to a couple of doubles including Polaris and M44 the Beehive cluster before packing it in. 

Showed it to my wife and kid. That is their first time seeing a comet ever. Both are tetrachromat's which mean they can see color in DSO's using a small telescope because they have four simultaneously functioning kinds of cone cell, each type with a specific pattern of responsiveness to different wave-lengths of light in the range of the visible spectrum vs. a "normal' human who has only two. Sadly neither one have ANY interest in our hobby and the one member of the family who does, me, has "normal" human vision. 

Also sadly my neighbor had her security light over her garage on full strength and my city just put up lights at the baseball field just down the street that they are not turning off even though we are  in C-19 lockdown at parks and other facilities so no one is there to use it. 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Dr Strange