Has anyone seen Comet 19P Borrelly?

[pjsmith_6198]

I've observed it a couple of times and it was pretty easy to see.  It looked a lot like C/2019 L3 ATLAS,  about the same magnitude and condensed central concentration.  It's currently in Aires not too far from the Pleiades and moving towards Perseus.   It's starting to fade, but it's still mag 9.6 according to https://theskylive.com/comets 

 

Phil

[Littleguy80]

Thank you so much for this post, Phil. Inspired me to get out and try for this comet tonight with the 10” dob. Tricky with the moon but found success with a 12.5mm eyepiece. Gentle tapping of scope confirmed the faint hazy patch was really there. Went on to enjoy a bit of Lunar observing after that. 19P Borrelly is the 20th comet I’ve observed. Comets are amongst my very favourite objects to observe.  

[pjsmith_6198]

Thanks  Neil.  Comets are my favorite targets also.   Another comet you can try is 104P Kowal 2.   It's in good position in Orion but it's very challenging.    I tried for that a couple of weeks ago with my 12 inch dob but didn't see it for certain.  I thought I might have seen something there using my comet filter with averted vision.   But I couldn't repeat that.  I tried low magnification, high magnification and with/without  the comet filter.    Looking back, I think I would have had better luck if I would have tried to observe it earlier in the evening when it was higher in the sky.    If you look for this,  try it as high in the sky as you can.   Preferably from your dark site.   It's diffuse and won't tolerate any Moon interference.  

 

Here are some web sites I use to find visible targets.   You are probably familiar with these.   I also use SkyTools 4 to find and make eyepiece charts

http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comets
https://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/
http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-n.html
https://theskylive.com/comets

 

Phil

[Littleguy80]

Thanks Phil. I’ll definitely give 104P a shot. What is your comet filter? I’ve often toyed with getting one of the Lumicon Swan filters.

Great links btw. 

[pjsmith_6198]

I have the Lumicon comet filter.    Most of the time it doesn't help  a great deal.  But a few times, it was the only way I saw the comet.  So I would recommend getting the Lumicon filter.     Comets usually shine from a combination of reflected light off dust and ionization.  The filter darkens the field and passes the ionization  and not the reflected light.    It's like using filter's with nebula .   A OIII filter will kill a reflection nebula but can work  with emission nebula.   It doesn't do magic (like OIII with the Veil Nebula) but it's a good tool to have.

 

Phil

[oldfruit]

Our astronomy club had a few members including myself hold an observing session at our dark site in the Lincolnshire Wolds on Friday 4th March. I took my 20 inch dob. It was one of the other members that notified me about it so we sought it out. Easily found and quite obvious in the large scope. We are always delighted to see these random visitors and this was no exception.

[Nyctimene]

Spotted comet 19/P Borrelly this evening under 4.8 mag skies with the 8" f/4 traveldob. At 89x mag (ES 18/82+2xBarlow), a very faint haze, only visible with averted vision for about 20-30% of observing time. Diffuse; coma diameter about 2-3 arc min; brightness about 10 mag; no tail.  Two or three times, I had for fractions of a second the impression of a pseudonucleus flashing up. By no means spectacular; will have a look tomorrow with the 12", weather permitting.

Stephan