What did you see tonight?

[SwiMatt]

A colleague and fellow astronomer gave me an insight of the right place to get the comet, on the highest hill in town (duh!). Too hazy for it to be naked eye, but easy in binoculars. Here's a heavily corrected picture to prove that I saw it.

[Captain Scarlet]

I finally managed to see the comet, first with binoculars, then just about with naked eye, before a thick haze started to creep over everything and the nearly full moon came up. Got some DSLR shots which I’ll retrieve in due course.

Very pleased to get it though. Tomorrow also looks promising, with the moon rising later to boot.

Magnus

edit: here’s a pic:

 

Edited Wednesday at 21:17 by Captain Scarlet

[Mr Spock]

I saw nothing but the rain tonight. Forecast looks patchy for tomorrow so I don't know whether I'll get to see the comet. The way cloud is going here I'll probably have to wait for the next one... 

[Littleguy80]

Pleased to see and grab a photo of the comet this evening  

[Chandra]

2 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

I finally managed to see the comet, first with binoculars, then just about with naked eye, before a thick haze started to creep over everything and the nearly full moon came up. Got some DSLR shots which I’ll retrieve in due course.

Very pleased to get it though. Tomorrow also looks promising, with the moon rising later to boot.

Magnus

edit: here’s a pic:

 

Beautiful panoramic!!

[Chandra]

The "comet of the century"... also urban...

After the clouds prevented me from seeing it these last few days, today I was finally able to see it with binoculars and photograph it...

I share here some images taken with a Galaxy S20, both ISO 100, 8s. exp.

[SwiMatt]

I was caught by surprise by a clear sky this morning during the morning walk with the dog, so the moment I got home I put the Mak on the balcony and started looking at Jupiter. Unfortunately the telescope was not cool enough, but I was still able to see that the Northern Equatorial Band was slightly thicker than the Southern, and I could see when Io cleared the planet and emerged in the darkness. There is nothing like a satellite getting out in "free air" to make you feel like Jupiter is actually tridimensional. Towards the end of the session, with the sky already blue, my seeing improved and I could see a few festoons. All in all, good 45 minutes even with a "warm" telescope  

[Mr Spock]

Was your journey really necessary?

Drove out to an area with a clear horizon, with scope, camera etc. Clear sky everywhere except...

... cloud rolling in 😡

Even the moon's disappeared now.
 

[Ratlet]

Better than me.  At least you've got a view.  I'm sat on my shed porch hoping the clouds part long enough for me to get a glimpse whilst trying to guide my brother to find it whilst he is in Morocco 

[Mr Spock]

Forecast for Monday looks good. Try again!

[Ratlet]

Spoke to soon.  Had set up my phone for some assistance and just clocked it in the gap by the house.

Would love to get a cope on it, but looked fantastic through my 10x50 binos.  Proper tail on it and everything.  Clouded over quite soon after.

 

 

Cropped to remove my ailing whirly gig:

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Ratlet

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Wasn't looking promising as it got dark but it cleared up at the right time. Had some good binocular views of the comet and got plenty of shots with my 135mm lens.

[Johnny81]

Dew, big Moon and what seems like haze... managed a few nice doubles and might go back out again later but the sky isn't great. 

[ED Splitter]

I was so excited to see the comet this year but given the bad weather all year I had written off any chance of seeing it. By coincidence I have a new work colleague who has an interest in the night sky. We struck up a conversation about the night sky and it convinced me to try for it, cue the clearing night sky.
I uttered one of those infamous phrases, I’ll be up in a minute to help with the kids routine, just going to see if I can find the comet. I swept the sky with binoculars and it jumped straight out in the fading twilight. I then rushed to Set up the scope, first with a 27mm panoptic which was a pleasing sight, nice long tail and bright centre but the contrast was too washed out, 19mm panoptic was an improvement, but the 2mm exit pupil wasn’t giving sufficient contrast. I switched from my mirror diagonal to my Takahashi prism which gave a noticeable boost. I did try a baader contrast filter which improved a little bit but the effect was too dimming. I then switched to my new to me 16mm nagler which hadn’t until tonight had a night under the stars despite owning since June. It gave a great view perfect framing good FOV displaying a bright centre point, perhaps three points with averted vision though this could have been me being too enthusiastic at the scope. An hour later the door opens and I am in trouble. I switched to an ethos 13mm but by that time it was too low in the sky and the atmosphere had taken all but the centre spot. I did try out a type 1- 7mm nagler early on in my view which was pleasing for such an old eyepiece, again new to me. I can see why many people rate the old televue eyepieces. Pushing my luck I put the scope to Saturn but couldn’t see it, then I realised in my eagerness to hunt the comet I forgot the counter weight, every time I zeroed Saturn in the finder, the scope drifted off target. Once located I had a wonderful view of Saturn. I saw it in July and the rings look to have changed so much since then. A great night, I really had given up hope with the hobby what with the weather this year but between tonight and the aurora last week my souls has been replenished. 
oh one more thing, when I went out I saw what I can only think was a launch of starlink satellites. I grabbed a shot of the comet in my phone through the scope, poor by the wonderful efforts I have seen on the forum and a video of the satellites. 
clear skies everyone. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

A good hour observing Tsuchinshan-ATLAS with 10x50s, 15x70s and my daughter's iPhone. Battling on-off security lights, bright internal house lights and a haphazard urban horizon. The view was particularly favourable through the 15x70s with much more of the tail length visible and a brighter core. Even my living at home student son & daughter had a look. That hour made my week. I was actually whooping and laughing with joy when I spotted the comet over a neighbour's roof. 🙄

I wrote up in my observation journal and the last entry was from Kielder water 14/10/23. It's been a quiet astro year for me... Plenty of reading but not much observing. 🙄

Edited 8 hours ago by ScouseSpaceCadet

[inedible_hulk]

Seeing as clear nights are few and far between, the dog and I jumped into the car and headed into the Berwyns for an elevated view and a clear horizon. I was becoming increasingly pessimistic as I drove through rain showers only to the find the sky clearing as I reached my destination. Blessed to have caught the comet in my binoculars for five or ten minutes before the cloud over Eryi /Snowdonia rolled in. Found myself in good company too

Edited 8 hours ago by inedible_hulk
Typo

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Here's the comet through my 135mm lens. Tomorrow I might try to make a timelapse.

[lunator]

After a glimpse of the comet a few days ago. I was determined to catch it tonight. At about 7pm I went round to the village green. It took about 10-15 mins but I found it. It looked pretty good in the 15x70's. It was just visible naked eye. Sky Safari had it at mag 3.6 but I thought it looked brighter. 

Cheers 

Ian

[GordonD]

Managed to catch it with binos when the clouds cleared briefly this evening just after 7. Not visible to the naked eye as the sky was still too bright. Got the refractor out and just got it on the comet and ..... yep clouded out. Ah well, hopefully it will stay bright enough as it continues to rise to get another chance.

[Craney]

This is mine for tonight.  By the side of Little Almscliffe, near Harrogate.  

Super annoying Moon on the clear side ... and intermittent cloud on the Comet side. !!!   Stayed around until I saw a possibility...

Canon G7x  (now repaired...  first light  !!)

 

[John]

5 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Was your journey really necessary?

Drove out to an area with a clear horizon, with scope, camera etc. Clear sky everywhere except...

... cloud rolling in 😡

Even the moon's disappeared now.
 

i had a similar experience. Drove down to a place with a view right down the Severn Estuary. If clear it would have been ideal with a totally uncluttered W and S horizon with views (normally) right down to Exmoor.

This evening though, two stubborn banks of cloud spoiled my chances of comet views. We had a nice evening walk anyway but my wife thinks I'm telling tall tales about the comet 🙄

[Sunshine]

The comet! question is can you see it? phone image isn’t great.