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COMET C/2022/ E3 (ZTF) - UPDATE


paulastro

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Have just been out with the 15 x 70 bins; conditions nice and dark with some bands of cloud. Using SkySafari I travelled West from Nekkar and lo and behold next to double star pairing of HR 5830 and HD 139920 was a very diffuse grey blob. Nice and easy, nicely placed in the sky and very visible with bins. Chalk another one off, chuffed 😁.

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Wow - great images. 😎

My wife and I were out yesterday morning early (~4am EST) and I'm pretty sure we spotted it with our NP101. It was cold, clear, and dark so my better half didn't last very long.

We're in for snow (6-12"), so it'll be next week for the next opportunity. Good luck !!

 

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I’m using Starsense app on IOS, checked and it’s last version.

if I search for ZTF it only finds C/2020 V2 (ZTF). 

I also have installed celestron SkyPortal app, based on skysafari 6, and on this today it works fine and find C/2022 E3. 

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3 hours ago, Cagliostro78 said:

I’m using Starsense app on IOS, checked and it’s last version.

if I search for ZTF it only finds C/2020 V2 (ZTF). 

I also have installed celestron SkyPortal app, based on skysafari 6, and on this today it works fine and find C/2022 E3. 

What is the version number it’s showing in the menu? Mine’s V1.1.7.1

 

0E4778CC-1698-4916-92E5-C68FB1265AC1.jpeg

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Was anyone able to make a mag estimate last night ? (cloudy here)

astro.vanbuitenen.nl is now showing some new visual obs from COBS in the 5.5 to 6 range!, and two ccd obs are a little up as well  (but not quite as dramatic !) from those being reported when I did my estimate.
lightcuve_plot_cobs2.jpg.b3d7cad678295d701e3086ca6264b026.jpg

Edited by Malpi12
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41 minutes ago, Malpi12 said:

Was anyone able to make a mag estimate last night ? (cloudy here)

astro.vanbuitenen.nl is now showing some new visual obs from COBS in the 5.5 to 6 range!, and two ccd obs are a little up as well  (but not quite as dramatic !) from those being reported when I did my estimate.
lightcuve_plot_cobs2.jpg.b3d7cad678295d701e3086ca6264b026.jpg

It’s very diffuse so I’d say it’s hard to tell but the two stars observed alongside the comet are mag +5.7 & +6.7 and I would put it between them, somewhere around the +6.0-6.5 mark.

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While I damaged my 10x50s so I've been looking just now 19.15 in 8x32 - despite being low down it showed as a very faint glow. For some kind of comparison I looked at M35 in Gemini which was brighter and larger but higher in the sky. I'll look again later when the comet is better placed. It's in the same binocular field, around 5 deg. from k and i Bootes, and must be brighter than mag. 6

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Using monopod mounted 15x70 binoculars I bagged the comet at 0430 this morning. Urban light pollution but excellent seeing and transparency. Finding the target took just a few minutes using Mizar as a signpost and simply moving the binoculars down, until the comet was captured. A not so faint fuzzy with a brighter core. Describing the shape I wrote "shuttlecock" in my observing notes. 

Edited by ScouseSpaceCadet
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I was finishing up a project on the Shark Nebula last night and as it dipped low behind my tree at 23:00 I packed the scope away and went to bed. I then realised what I was doing a new moon, clear night, a comet and I remembered I have a ZWO AAP and importantly plan mode! So I got back out of bed, pulled out all the gear and polar aligned again. I checked the Sky Guide app to see where it would be and it looked like 1am to 5:30 looked high, so I set the plan to start at 1am. Goto, cooling, guiding all done by that little red box.  Funnily enough after getting back into bed again the anticipation of whether my plan was going to work or not meant I didnt sleep very well. I checked my phone at 1am and I could see the camera cooling  and I checked again around 2am to see an image roll in. Needless to say it worked an absolute treat and I managed to capture an hour of each RGB channel and some L in case I want to use that too. I have not processed the data yet but I am hopeful I can finally tick a decent processed comet image off my list as Leonard was a fail. I went back to sleep again only to wake again at 4am my body telling me to wake up and check the capture was still going as planned and it was. It was at this time I decided I am going to get up and become a visual astronomer too after all its not the same laying in bed as laying under the stars and comets dont come around often. So I got my Optricon 10x50m bins out and used where the scope was pointing as referenced and looked up. I think I would have struggled to find it without the aid of the scope direction, but I did manage and it was great to see it directly without all the fancy sensors. As I am more of a photographer astronomer opposed to a visual one (need to change this) I am unsure what magnitude I would place it at, but it was a little more than a smudge still not visible to the naked eye. Looks like Orion nebular is 4 I would say the comet was maybe a 6... After my capture was complete and my arms tired and shivering from holding the bins up for so long I decide to call it a night at 5am (I make it sound like I was out all night :) ), but I did shoot a quick 300s L image just to see what detail was there. I share this here a simple stretch from the AAP and then I used the screen shot function on my phone no editing just raw from phone. May the cold clear nights continue and I hope this keeps getting brighter and brighter. Thanks for reading Simon.

IMG_2525.PNG

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I drove out of the City last night to observe the comet. I took my 90mm refractor and the 16mm 82 degree EP. Able to find the comet quite easily but could not detect the tail. I need to go later because the glow from the City was quite bad at the lower altitude. Hopefully, a will get a clear spell before the Moon gets too bright.

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Could not see it naked eye last night under Bortle 4-5 skies (transparency was bad). Very obvious in my 7x50 binoculars and a 90mm frac though, impossible not to find really. Not moving all that fast, certainly couldnt see it move in real time.

In terms of visual oomph i would say it was third place in brightness and size, just after M31 and M42.

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I've just had a peek at it - I'm in Bortle 5 and the sky is quite murky here at 20deg alt!

The comet I think is there, just a fuzzy ball. I used 10x50 bins so nothing huge in terms of optics.

Next weekend it will be much higher at this time, so will hopefully be set up for a look with the dob and have some lenses and cams on it too.

At least I've seen it though!

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14 minutes ago, Sneezy24 said:

Daft question time:- I have the latest Stellarium version (1.22.5), but I can't find C/2022 E3 in the search function!

Do I need to manually update a database or something?

Yes go to the configuration window, select plug in tab, solar system editor, click configure, select solar system tab, import orbital elements in MPC format, change to comets then run the search or search by C/2022 E3. Then add object then just search for it using the search window

Edited by Simon Pepper
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