Comet 2020 M3 (Atlas) in Lepus

[Mike JW]

This comet is low down in Lepus so a tricky one for me to 'see'. 

Small nucleus, large-ish diffuse halo which is asymmetrical.

Mike

 

[AKB]

...and now in Orion.

Taken from an EEVA session last night in atrociously windy conditions:

[Paul M]

Nicely captured. What's no to like about comets

I can't believe I haven't had a single oportunity to look at this one!

 

[Mike JW]

I had a look at M3 last night - very nice.

[Martin Meredith]

Great comet shots guys! No chance here at the moment. Is this one moving quite quickly? It seems to have moved from star-poor to star-rich and back to star-poor regions in just a few days. I do like the wide FOV in Orion.  Certainly the core motion in 2 minutes looks quite substantial in Mike's last shot. 

Martin

 

[AKB]

1 hour ago, Martin Meredith said:

Is this one moving quite quickly?

It is.  If I simply use Jocular to play my 20 second subs then I’m watching a movie...

...any chance to output this from Jocular as an animated GIF?

Edited November 20, 2020 by AKB

[Mike JW]

Just tried the same as Tony and was posting when Tony's post came in. I detected movement after 15 secs (3x5sec subs). If I run the subs fast then it is indeed like a movie. Mike

Edited November 21, 2020 by Mike JW

[Martin Meredith]

1 hour ago, AKB said:

It is.  If I simply use Jocular to play my 20 second subs then I’m watching a movie...

...any chance to output this from Jocular as an animated GIF?

Good idea. I will work on it... 

[AKB]

Thanks to @Martin Meredith's exceptional speed and prowess with Jocular development / Python / kivi / ... I can present a movie of the other night's comet capture.

As an apology, I'd just mention that it was very windy and my star shapes/focus are usually better than this!

Further thanks to Martin for providing us with such a super EEVA tool.

Tony

Edited November 21, 2020 by AKB

[Martin Meredith]

More the prowess of the open source world!

I think animation is also useful for anyone coming at EEVA afresh to see the kind of rubbishy subs we often have to deal with, and how the magic of stacking & sub deselection can still lead to useful observations.

The distribution on the Jocular thread has been updated to include this feature.

Martin

[Mike JW]

and here is my version of the comet moving over 125 seconds. Mike

 

[AKB]

Caught up with it again this evening... much better conditions than previously:

 

[Mike JW]

I too could not resist another look at M3, last night. It is moving at about 15km/second and heading back out into the solar system.

This animation shows the movement over about 7 minutes.

[Bill S]

Sorry about this. It's getting repetitive.

I, too, could not resist a look at Comet C/2020 M3 ATLAS. It was certainly not in Lepus last night. And I wanted to have a go with Jocular 0.3 and try the gif feature. So I'm afraid it's a jump on the bandwagon ten minute time-lapse of the comet.

 

 

I did have a look at some other things as well.

Regards

Bill

[Martin Meredith]

Mesmerising!

I know almost nothing about variable stars but I wonder if there are any really fast variations (though not so fast as the Crab pulsar) that could be visualised using this approach? Likewise, occultations by things other than our moon. Motion of the moons of Jupiter? How many pixels/minute? (displaying my ignorance here!)

Martin

[Mike JW]

Bill - I do like your animation - much better than mine.

Martin - moons of Jupiter - might see the movement -  image every 10 mins for an hour? - no idea.

Tony - like the wide fov and the streak effect

Mike

[AKB]

1 hour ago, Martin Meredith said:

I wonder if there are any really fast variations [...] that could be visualised using this approach?

Satellites, for example ...?

Edited November 23, 2020 by AKB

[AKB]

Caught up, once again, with C/2020-M3 (ATLAS).

Now in Aurega, near to HD 34425.  It seems to be a very pretty area of the sky, with a lovely linear string of stars nearby.  Harder to see the moevement, now, this is 20 x 20s images stacked, but over a total period of about 10 minutes.

I've also added a snap from Pretty Deep Maps, in the region of the grid square where it is.

I/m sure I should know, but can anyone enlighten me as to two things:

1. the SEI 178 designation
2. the meaning of 8.3 | 11.7 | 25.6" | B5 next to HD 34425 A

Thanks for any insights!

Tony

 

 

[Mike JW]

Hi Tony,

You are into doubles territory. SEI 178 is its Washington Star Doubles Catalogue designation and refers to its discoverer - J Scheiner.

Companion A (primary) has a mag of 8.3, its companion B has a mag of 11.7 and they are separated by 25.6 arc seconds - thus 8.3|11.7|25.6. The current separation (just checked) is actually 25.4" (measurement taken in 2015).

Your image has captured this double rather well and oh there is a comet as well - great to see it again - I had forgotten all about it with this long run of poor weather.

Cheers,

Mike

[AKB]

Mike

Thanks so much for the concise and highly informative reply.  I feel much better educated, now.  Doubles are something that I, er..., um..., haven’t yet ‘done’, really.  I’ll add them to the list  

Tony

 

[Martin Meredith]

Hi Tony

Mike explained it well. Just to add that the B6 at the end is the spectral type of the primary. Stellar  'infolines' give a variety of information, the meaning of which you can find in this document:

technical.pdf

It really is a beautiful star field around the comet and that line of stars really stands out.

cheers

Martin

[AKB]

1 hour ago, Martin Meredith said:

a variety of information, the meaning of which you can find in this document:

Ah yes, thanks, I did read that (honestly) when I first installed PDM... but there’s such a wealth of information there that I must have mentally filed bits of it in the ‘not needed on voyage’ suitcase.   Now, clearly, on a slightly different voyage, and I did need that bit.

Thanks again. 

[Mike JW]

Tony's recent post prompted me to have another look at the comet. I was surprised by how bright it is. It sat neatly in the middle of a circle of stars - a pleasing view.

Mike