Observing Pons Brooks.

[peanutcol]

Hi all, some advice needed. Only had my scope a few weeks. Heritage 130p. Have managed a few nights getting to grips with it in-between the clouds and rain. I'm really interested in locating the pons brooks comet and viewing. My eyepieces are the 10mm and 25mm that came with the scope also I've bought a skywatcher 32mm and 6.3mm. which would you say to find and observe. Or would I find then change to look closer? 

Thanks in advance.

[AstroMuni]

38 minutes ago, peanutcol said:

Or would I find then change to look closer? 

You have answered your question 🙂 

[josefk]

Is your heritage 130p fitted with a red dot finder @peanutcol? If so you could use that to get your scope pointing in the right kind of area using bright stars visible in the RDF and that you know to be near the comet.

After your pointing in the right basic area then you probably do have to look through your scope to pick-up the comet itself and it will be easiest using your lowest magnification (32mm eyepiece) because this will  sweep the  most amount of sky in your eyepiece till you pick it up. Once you've found it you can step down your eyepieces (increase the magnification) to maximise the scale and contrast against the sky.

Using your 32mm i think the comet will look like a a slightly too big out of focus glowing star (easy to miss if you sweep around too quickly). When you use higher magnification the glow becomes more obviously "not a star" and with your 6.3mm eyepiece the view could be quite satisfying with something of a comet like shape.

Do you know roughly were to get looking? If not (sorry if patronising) then this is a screen shot from Stellarium for tonight (roughly useful not brilliantly useful).

[peanutcol]

Brilliant response mate. Thanks so much for the help. Yes it has a red dot finder and I use stellarium so know the basics area. I didn't know I would be able to use the 6mm as I thought  so that's great to know. Thanks again.

[Tiny Clanger]

With a 32mm plossl in your heritage 130 (assuming the plossl has a 50 degree FOV) the circle you see in the sky is about 2.5 degrees in diameter. That star Hamal in josefk's helpful Stellarium screen shot is a shade over 3 degrees from the comet tonight, so find Hamal with the 32mm, shift your dob so Hamal is on the edge of the view, nudge the 'scope a bit further and you should see a fuzzy thing ... centre the fuzzy thing then try some higher powered eyepieces.

The main problem (apart from clouds !) you need to consider is that the view in your dob is upside down, so rather than putting Hamal at the left edge of your eyepiece, (around 10 o'clock if you think of directions that way) you want to shift the 'scope so Hamal is between 3 and 4 o'clock.

[Geoff Lister]

Another thing to consider is that this comet is now getting close to the setting Sun. The comet will be close to the horizon when the Sun has set and it is starting to get dark-enough to see the comet. The Stellarium view, above, neatly illustrates the problem with houses/fences/trees etc. blocking the view.

I have found that I need to mount my telescopes as high as possible to see over my garage and/or adjacent fences. The Heritage 130P's Dobsonian base needs to be on as high a stand as possible to get a clear view towards the horizon.

A couple of nights ago, to get a clear view of the comet, I had to resort to extreme measures to clear an adjacent fence, this time with a different telescope, but using a stepladder with a painting platform. With a suitable clamp the Heritage's base could work on something like this.

But it was worth the effort to get this view

Geoff

[peanutcol]

Great advice. I know the general area as I've pointed stellarium a few times to find out but unfortunately I've not had clear skies yet. Supposed to be crystal clear tonight though according to the weather apps so fingers crossed.