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Comet 103P Hartley

iamjulian

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Rui

Rui

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Next 8th October, the comet will be near the Double Cluster in Perseus. It will be New Moon and hopefully it'll be a fine occasion to spot it or even image it as it will be nicelly framed together with de double cluster.

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iamjulian

iamjulian

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True Rui, but cloud may not play ball, so I'm treating every clear night from now as potentially the last chance I will get to see it.

Supposed to be clear tonight and Hartley should almost eclipse Lambda Cas at 9.30pm. If I cannot find it tonight I should probably think about swapping my scope for a backgammon set.

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enigma

enigma

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I found the comet last night quite easily with a 6" reflector not far away from Lambda Cas. The comet appeared faint, but I could see it with direct vision and better at low magnification. It appeared to have a circular coma and a faint core.

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Breakintheclouds

Breakintheclouds

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I'm pleased to hear it's barely visible in an 8" - I've just been out with binos and couldn't spot it at all. I was *just* making out a nearby 8.5 mag star, after about 10 minutes of dark adaptation, but the area where the comet should be was just a blank zone. There was a moment where I thought I'd found it, but then I realized I was just seeing a little cluster of stars nearby. I'm itching to get a sight of this comet now!

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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I'm pleased to hear it's barely visible in an 8" - I've just been out with binos and couldn't spot it at all. I was *just* making out a nearby 8.5 mag star, after about 10 minutes of dark adaptation, but the area where the comet should be was just a blank zone. There was a moment where I thought I'd found it, but then I realized I was just seeing a little cluster of stars nearby. I'm itching to get a sight of this comet now!

this was my experience just now almost word for word with the 15x70s!

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John

John

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Ditto with the 10" here. There are two very little star clusters in the vicinity playing havoc with my finderscope and bins views only to find in the scope they resolve to star clusters. No comet to be seen :-(

And with a 4" refractor and 10x50 binoculars here - Heavens Above lists it @ mag 6 :icon_salut:

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bish

bish

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I just looked on heavens above too. When I saw it was supposed to be mag 6 and quite easy to locate I thought I would be in with a chance using my 15x70 bins. Now reading the posts above it seems I'll need my scope.

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cathalferris

cathalferris

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I spotted it quite easily with my new 6" Newt. Comparing the starfield with the starfield as per the Heavens-Above page on 103/P, and entering the position into the digital setting circle function of the lxd75 and I could spot the comet with direct vision. It's not easy, and I didn't attempt to look for it with the 15x70. I'd say that the magnitude (6 ish) would be accurate given that the size of the coma is not *that* small.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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I had a good view in my 10 inch dob. It was SW of a brigth filed star. ? Lambda Cass. It has a nucleus and a triangular shaped "tail". Looks to me like a brighter galaxy of say mag 10. It was definitely not visible in the finder so thats why I would go for lower than mag 10...

Very much brighter than a few weeks ago when it was nearer mag 13/14 to my eyes.

Also for good measure I logged NGC 4750 and NGC 3329. Two galaxies over in Draco..NGC 4750 is pretty "bright" for a galaxy...(but a lot fainter than the comet!)

Mark

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Astroscot2

Astroscot2

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I had a go at imaging the comet last night and after the imaging run decided to have a look, I have quite a bit of light polution but can still see the MW faintly, the moon had risen but quite low. I could find no trace of the comet through steady 15x70 bins although I would detdct a few small clusters that I thought were the comet, in the 10 inch Newt I could just detect the comet with averted vision. I was surprised how faint the comet looked in comparison to the images I as taking. the comet must be sitting around +10 +11 mag ?

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NickH

NickH

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Visually yes, the attached graph from Toni Scarmato shows the photometric magnitudes up to 17th Sept, and it's brightening significantly since then, we're both now measuring around mag 7.5 photometric/integrated, but the diffuse coma means that visually it's still a struggle (20 arcmin last night for the coma)

post-14410-133877487608_thumb.jpg

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iamjulian

iamjulian

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First thing I did was point a camera at Lam Cas. Comet showed up very easily. Used that as a star map and once I knew where it was I could make out some very faint smudge with averted vision. And my sky was as dark and clear as I have ever seen it, roughly mag 5.2

Am I right in thinking the mag estimates for comets are like those for galaxies, in that the surface brightness is actually much fainter? Mag 7 should be very easy but I could see mag 11 stars more clearly than I could see 103P Hartley last night.

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Talitha

Talitha

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Just got back from the Starpad. :o

The comet's not too spectacular as far as things go, but this baby is huge.. nearly as big as the ET/Owl cluster. It was half-way between Phi Cassiopeiae (one of ET's eyes) and Theta/Mu Cassiopeiae tonight, and was easily seen through my 11x70's as a large, diffuse glow. Through the 16" LightBridge, a small bright core was very evident, and seemed to be tucked into the southwest portion of the comet's glow. I'd be surprised if this one makes it to naked-eye status but it's still worth a look. :) (Sketch will be posted asap.)

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Astroscot2

Astroscot2

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I had another look at this comet last night and found it noteably brighter than when I viewed it last Wednesday, If was easy to find in 15x70 binoculars. Reminded my of a smaller version of M33. Its certinally brighter but no firework.

Mark

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