Comet Hunter

[Littleguy80]

Astronomy has taken a bit of back seat in recent months as I was training for the London Marathon which took place last weekend. With more free time on my hands I've been more inclined to get the 10" dob out. The skies were clear this evening when I looked out at 22:30. I went back and and forth on whether to go out with the scope or not. I did some quick research and using the excellent site, http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comets, I settled on trying to hunt down some comets. 

As a warm up, I briefly observed the Pleiades and then worked my way through the Auriga Messier clusters of M37, M36 and M38. All showed well and gave me some confidence that the transparency was quite good. Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann was reported has having a large outburst on September 25th and having brightened enough to be visible in small scopes by October 1st. The comet is currently in Auriga and was placed very close to the star Al Kab. This made finding the comet very easy. It was immediately obvious in the eyepiece as an extended nebulous patch. I didn't notice a bright core to it. This really built my confidence to carry out and try for more comets!

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is in Taurus and is quite close to the Crab Nebula (M1). I began with a slightly uncertain observation, much less obvious than 29P. I wandered off to M1, this was also a trickier spot. Both of these objects were lower down and not too far above the roof tops. Returning to 67P, I looked up at the sky briefly relaxing my eyes before returning to the eyepiece. Now using increased magnification, I started to see the comet more clearly with averted vision. Much smalerl than 29P but distinctly nebulous, like a small globular cluster where the stars cannot be resolved.

I set about finding one final comet. This time my target, C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), was in Lynx. Initially there seemed to be no sign of the comet, increasing magnification also didn't help. Once again, I looked up and allowed my eyes to rest and relax for a minute. Looking through the eyepiece and I now picked up a hint of something. The 10mm Delos went into the focuser and now the comet was clearer. Very similar to 67P in appearance but slightly fainter. I moved away from the comet a couple of times to check I could successfully find it again. With all 3 comets, I used SkySafari as a means of verifying the observed object matched up with the expected location. 

With a hat trick of comets in the bag, I moved onto something different. Using the Astronomik HB filter with the APM UFF 30mm, I set out in search of the California nebula. As with most of these large diffuse nebulae, the key is to pick up an edge. It took a minute of two for my eye to really hone in on the nebula. Once it did, I began tracing up and down the length of the nebula. It became quite obvious as time went on. It gave me a strong desire to return to my dark site to pick out more detail. Although the SQM was reading 19.7 from my garden which isn’t bad at all when the transparency is good. As my eyes grew tired, I decided to move onto brighter targets. I enjoyed a brief check on Ceres progress through Taurus. After that I observed Uranus, which showed as a lovely small disc at 240x. Around half past midnight, I decided it was time to come in. Very pleased with my haul of 3 new comets!

Edited October 9, 2021 by Littleguy80

[Pixies]

I found 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko tonight, too. Your description is very accurate - like a small unresolved globular cluster.

[Littleguy80]

5 hours ago, Pixies said:

I found 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko tonight, too. Your description is very accurate - like a small unresolved globular cluster.

Excellent! Well done 😊Thanks for the confirmation on the description, always good to know it wasn’t just my imagination 😂

[Littleguy80]

I revisited all three Comets this evening. 29P is still the largest and brightest. 67P and L3 both retained their small globular appearance. I found all three much more easily tonight. Not sure if that’s conditions or me regaining my observing skills a little more.

Mirach’s ghost (NGC404) plus M33 with it’s bright nebula NGC604 capped off a very enjoyable short session. 

[Helix]

Hi Neil,

Thank you for your report. Observed 67P tonight with my 10”.  It is quite bright, now, even under light polluted skies. I suspected a tail. It would be nice to know if you see any tail. I know that you have excellent observing skills. 
 

Looking forward to hear from you,

Tatyana

[Littleguy80]

27 minutes ago, Helix said:

Hi Neil,

Thank you for your report. Observed 67P tonight with my 10”.  It is quite bright, now, even under light polluted skies. I suspected a tail. It would be nice to know if you see any tail. I know that you have excellent observing skills. 
 

Looking forward to hear from you,

Tatyana

Hi Tatyana!

Great sketch, thank you for sharing it! I didn’t notice a tail when I observed it but haven’t had an opportunity to revisit it since this report. I’ll take another look on the next clear night. If it’s brightened since I last observed it then there may be a chance of seeing the tail. 

Did you observe any of the other comets?  I’ve had attempts to see C/2021 A1 Leonard which is expected to get very bright next month. It’s very low down in Ursa Major right now. I also tried for 4P/Faye which I was maybe picking up but not enough to feel confident in the observation. I’m sure it would have been observable from Seething. 

[Helix]

Thank you for coming back to me.

I wanted to look at Lenard C/2021 A1 last night but it was too low down. By the time the comet was up enough to see it the cloud covered the sky completely. 

I will keep looking for the clear gaps in the skies to observe more comets, including Lenard A1 and 4P/Faye. I hope to come back here with more info on observing those comets. Also, looking forward to hearing more from your observation sessions.

[Littleguy80]

Thanks Tatyana. Leonard is continuing to brighten so hopefully will be visible soon despite being so low. 4P/Faye is well placed but faint. I’m sure you can get it though. I’ll be sure to post when I observe next  

[Helix]

Just processed a brief photo of 67P taken from same garden 2 hours later after my observation and comparing  with my sketch.

There is a tail. Phew! And it looks that my eyes are still performing okay. Relief 😅 

[Mark at Beaufort]

Neil how did I miss this excellent thread. Really enjoyed the details plus the info on 67P. I have a clear sky at the moment so hopefully I will try and observe it tonight.

[Littleguy80]

2 hours ago, Helix said:

Just processed a brief photo of 67P taken from same garden 2 hours later after my observation and comparing  with my sketch.

There is a tail. Phew! And it looks that my eyes are still performing okay. Relief 😅 

Great image, Tatyana. I never doubted your eyes. You’re one of the best observers I know  

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Neil how did I miss this excellent thread. Really enjoyed the details plus the info on 67P. I have a clear sky at the moment so hopefully I will try and observe it tonight.

Thanks Mark. Really glad you enjoyed it. There’s some good fun to be had finding those comets right now  

[Helix]

20 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Great image, Tatyana. I never doubted your eyes. You’re one of the best observers I know  

Thank you, Neil. Vice versa 😁

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Helix said:

Thank you, Neil. Vice versa 😁

Thank you very much 😊

[Mark at Beaufort]

Neil thanks again for the heads up. I viewed 67P last night using my 6" Reflector . The clearest view came using 6mm Ethos.

[Littleguy80]

3 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Neil thanks again for the heads up. I viewed 67P last night using my 6" Reflector . The clearest view came using 6mm Ethos.

Great result, Mark. I’m glad you were able to see it. Worth trying it with your 12” to see if you can spot the tail!

[Pixies]

Observed 67P tonight. Much brighter/clearer tonight and now in Cancer.

I could just make out a possible short tail with averted vision - pointing west from the comet. Visible in a wide range of magnifications, but probably best in 8mm Vixen LVW (x150 mag)

I would have tried a sketch, but far too cold tonight!