C/2022 E3 question

[tripleped]

from  where  I live  (central U.S.  39 N)  C/2022 E3  is well positioned  in the northern sky.   I haven't had  a chance to observe it  yet  but this Thursday I have an opportunity to travel about  an hour  to a Bortle 4 site.  I would be bringing  my binocs  and  my 6" Dob.  The problem is its a full moon night.  Would I be wasting  my time or would the comet  have  sufficient luminance to still be visible enough to make  it worth the trip? 

[pjsmith_6198]

You will still be able to see it.  C/2022 E3 has  a bright central concentration surrounded by a large coma.  I've seen it a few times.  The last time on 1/30/2023.  The Moon was bright, but the comet was still good.   The Moon will diminish the the coma and you won't see any tail, but the central concentration will still be easily visible.   It would be  like looking at the Orion nebula with a full Moon.  It's not as good as no Moon, but you can still visible.   A bigger problem than the Moon might be the cold.  It's supposed to be very cold where you are.   E3 is still going to be bright for awhile .   If you can reschedule the Bortle 4 site trip until the Moon is out of the way, E3 would be more impressive than under a full Moon.   But you can still see it with the Moon.

 

Phil

[tripleped]

thanks for the reply Phil, that's very helpful. The  cold  has  indeed been bad. My scopes  have  been in "hibernation" for about  6 weeks unfortunately. I think I will postpone the  trip until the bright  moon is out  of the picture, by which time  the comet's altitude will be even better, eventually making  it into Taurus  I believe.

  Ken

[pjsmith_6198]

Good decision.    You'll get a better view plus if the temperatures aren't so bad you can enjoy it longer.

 

Phil

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The comet is actually quite easy to spot in moonlight,  I have just seen. It is near zenith for me at the moment

[Pete Presland]

I saw it again on Wednesday morning, i thought it seemed a little duller and more diffuse than a couple of days previously. That may have been down to the sky conditions though.

[Captain Scarlet]

Just now, for me in nominally 21.8 skies, with a nearly full moon at nearly zenith, it was _barely_ detectable through 10x50 binoculars. 10 days ago it was naked eye. Quite a change.

Magnus

[Guest]

I have yet to be able to get out and see it.  The cloud cover has been a killer this winter. 

[Knighty2112]

Quite easy to spot with binos or a scope. Just been observing it tonight/early morning with pretty much a full moon washing everything out, but still easy to nab the comet  still.

[bingevader]

On 03/02/2023 at 17:30, Pete Presland said:

I saw it again on Wednesday morning, i thought it seemed a little duller and more diffuse than a couple of days previously. That may have been down to the sky conditions though.

It's moving away from us too though, so will dim as it does. its magnitude is dropping off rapidly at the moment.

[Pete Presland]

19 hours ago, bingevader said:

It's moving away from us too though, so will dim as it does. its magnitude is dropping off rapidly at the moment.

Saw it again last night,still an easy spot despite the full moons best efforts 🙂