Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2

[Allan]

Just thought I would bring this one to the attention of anyone who hasn't observed it yet. I stumbled across it the other night and it was looking quite good even from my not so dark back yard.

Currently in Puppis at about mag 8, should reach mag 5 in January. Over the next couple of months it takes a nice course through the sky near Canis Major, Orion and Taurus.

[simmo]

Thanks for the heads up on this one Allan. I did see it was mentioned in S&T a few months back but no write up about it. I saw your post yesterday before heading out and made it a target for the night.

For anyone else make sure you have a look at the moment as it is quite good. Easily seen in the 10x50 finderscope so anybody with binos should find it no worries. I know the people with binos last night found it in theirs. I used my 10" scope and a 13mm ultima eyepiece and the comet cloud would have filled about 50% of the view. Spectacular to say the least and probably the biggest cloud I have seen on a comet in the last two years. Comet is visible also through the cloud as a bright spot in the middle.

A friend with his 60mm refractor was able to identify the comet in the centre. Very nice views.

Very photogenic as well with a couple of the guys taking exposures that looked quite good.

Happy hunting all. ;)

[Visionoz]

Simmo

Whereabouts are you peeps observing from in Perth?

Cheers
Bill

[simmo]

Hello Bill,

A few of us from here on IIS gather together when times are right and head to a brilliant little spot about an 1hr east of Perth. There's a camp ground with basic facilities so you can camp there the night. We usually set up a tent which allows us to stay up quite late and saves a risky night drive home while tired. We won't be doing one till after Christmas some time as you can imagine but if you would like to come along your more than welcome. As are any other Perth residents. I think next time I'll extend a formal invite on the star party board so check there after chrissie.

Simmo ;)

[plantnerd]

I easily spotted this comet last night using the only scope I had available a small 76mmX350mm tabletop reflector and this was in the light pollution of downtown Noosa. Cant wait to see it tonight clouds permitting in my 8X43 ED binos and 130mm newtonian and try to image it using 300mm equivalent focal length at F2.0 (Olympus Zuiko 150mm f2.0). Very excited to watch this comet brighten until January!

[cometcatcher]

It's been visible in the 8 x 50 finderscope the last few days.

[N1]

I didn't realise you could see the tail already. Faint & thin but very obvious in averted vision. Neat. Found it easily halfway between Sirius and Canopus and watched it for about 2 hours last night with a few other targets in between. 10" dob and 28mm ES68 gave the best view. A smaller scope would also give nice views I expect. Might try my Aldi dob tonight, or the 130 Astromaster I got from another IIS member rcently...

[gaa_ian]

This is great news to have another Lovejoy Christmas Comet. I think its just about time to let the General Public know about this one. Time for a few Radio and newspaper spots. I looked with my 4" scope at 26x last night from LP skies and thought I could see a brightening to one side. Looking forward to Dark Skies view.

[MortonH]

Just spent an hour viewing it with my 80mm from my balcony. I hadn't realised it was so bright. Fantastic, even from my light polluted skies.

[ZeroID]

After absolutely no joy with the weather for over a month now we just had a late night cloud clearance and I spotted Lovejoy in the 12 x 50 bins. Just a small fuzzy ball in the hi SE sky. No tail visible. Too late to start up the Ob but I'll keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow night. I hadn't expected the clouds to clear at all, at 21:30 when I shut down it was wall to wall grey.
At least I've seen it now ..

[kkara4]

I am wondering if anyone is doing their own light curve analyses? I have been following the Calsky ephemeris for about a month now, and slowly the peak brightness has moved from a predicted mag 5.5 to mag 4. It is showing no signs of being revised down either as the days go on. I am wondering if this comet is going to be more spectacular than people are expecting. then again i am known to get my hopes up :lol:

http://www.calsky.com/csephem.cgi?object=Comet&number=C/2014+Q2&tdt=2457763.19574545&obs=2073554981416

It would also be much appreciated if someone can enlighten me as to what the "slowdown" portion of the light curve means, and why it did not feature on the light curve up till now?

At the moment though, it certainly isnt going to have the wow factor the average joe desires when looking for a comet.

i so far have failed to convince the family to stand outside for a few minutes with the binos only to find a fuzzy faint blob. haha.

i have a feeling about this one though, that Mr Lovejoy is going to give us a very nice late Christmas present.

[cometcatcher]

A peak magnitude of around 4ish sounds reasonable to me. Much better than the original predicted peak of mag 9 !

In my experience, comets are often given optimistic brightness peaks that they never reach. But 2014 Q2 is different in that it has exceeded expectations. This is not the first time 2014 Q2 has ventured into the inner solar system. As a returning comet with a period of several thousand years, it doesn't just rely on surface frosting for it's "fuel" as new to the inner solar system 2013 A1 Siding Spring did.

The best thing about 2014 Q2 Lovejoy is the constantly changing ion tail. It has kinks, bends, swirls, disconnections, multiple streamers and all sorts of action happening that change every few minutes! While it will not reach comet of the century status, it's one of the more interesting ones to watch.

[kkara4]

thanks Kev, makes sense!

[mozzie]

Have been watching this comet for the past few weeks. and it has that globular cluster look seeing no real Color there was a hint of a tall on the 23rd with my binos at 60x still giving me a degree of sky.
The cloud and rain has been in since and am eagerly awaiting clear skies to view again.hopefully brighter and a visible tail
Mozzie

[gregbradley]

Just looking at that CalSky Ephemeris and for 27 Dec the RA DEc for the comet is listed as RA 5 38.9 Dec 28 19.5.

I plan on imaging it tonight as its clear today. Where can I get tonights RA Dec from? I can probably find it from the coordinates above and hunt around.

Greg.

[OzEclipse]

Greg

Starry Night has it at as
29/12/2014
..UT..............RA............... .......DEC
1000.........5h_23.15'.............-24d_17.0'
1300.........5h_22.26'.............-24d_03.2'
1600.........5h_21.37'.............-23d_49.2'

regards
Joe

[pdthomas23]

You don't need to hunt much as it is quite readily visible in binoculars.
However, you can use the Minor Planet Ephemeris Service from the Minor Planet Center to calculate ephemerides.
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/mpeph2.cgi
Here's a daily ephemeris calculated for Melbourne at 10 UT (= 9 pm local) each day for the next 20 days.

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)
Epoch 2014 Dec. 9.0 TT = JDT 2457000.5
T 2015 Jan. 30.0696 TT MPC
q 1.290356 (2000.0) P Q
z +0.001718 Peri. 12.3952 -0.1207272 -0.1452770 T = 2457052.56957 JDT
+/-0.000005 Node 94.9754 +0.8056778 -0.5922436 q = 1.2903561
e 0.997783 Incl. 80.3029 +0.5799208 +0.7925541 Earth MOID = 0.31992 AU
No residual file available.
Perturbed ephemeris below based on elements from MPEC 2014-Y44 (http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K14/K14Y44.html).

CK14Q020
Date UT R.A. (J2000) Decl. Delta r El. Ph. m1 Sky Motion Object Sun Moon
h m s "/min P.A. Azi. Alt. Alt. Phase Dist. Alt.
2014 12 29 100000 05 22 31.9 -24 17 23 0.521 1.375 129.6 33.4 5.5 6.10 318.6 266 +47 -04 0.57 071 +43
2014 12 30 100000 05 15 29.4 -22 23 50 0.511 1.370 130.3 33.2 5.4 6.37 319.6 261 +49 -04 0.68 060 +42
2014 12 31 100000 05 08 23.7 -20 23 38 0.501 1.365 131.0 32.9 5.3 6.64 320.6 257 +50 -04 0.78 049 +39
2015 01 01 100000 05 01 16.1 -18 17 02 0.493 1.361 131.5 32.8 5.3 6.88 321.5 251 +50 -03 0.86 040 +34
2015 01 02 100000 04 54 07.8 -16 04 29 0.485 1.356 131.8 32.7 5.2 7.11 322.4 246 +51 -03 0.92 034 +27
2015 01 03 100000 04 47 00.0 -13 46 33 0.479 1.351 131.9 32.8 5.1 7.30 323.2 240 +51 -03 0.97 034 +21
2015 01 04 100000 04 39 53.9 -11 23 59 0.475 1.347 131.8 33.0 5.1 7.45 323.9 235 +52 -03 0.99 039 +13
2015 01 05 100000 04 32 50.7 -08 57 38 0.471 1.343 131.5 33.3 5.1 7.57 324.5 229 +51 -03 1.00 047 +06
2015 01 06 100000 04 25 51.5 -06 28 26 0.469 1.339 131.0 33.7 5.0 7.63 325.1 223 +51 -03 0.99 058 -01
2015 01 07 100000 04 18 57.3 -03 57 26 0.469 1.335 130.2 34.2 5.0 7.66 325.5 217 +50 -03 0.95 069 -08
2015 01 08 100000 04 12 09.1 -01 25 43 0.469 1.331 129.3 34.9 5.0 7.63 325.9 212 +49 -03 0.91 082 -15
2015 01 09 100000 04 05 27.9 +01 05 39 0.472 1.327 128.1 35.6 5.0 7.56 326.2 207 +48 -03 0.84 094 -21
2015 01 10 100000 03 58 54.5 +03 35 39 0.475 1.324 126.8 36.5 4.9 7.44 326.5 202 +46 -04 0.77 107 -27
2015 01 11 100000 03 52 29.5 +06 03 17 0.480 1.321 125.4 37.4 4.9 7.29 326.7 197 +45 -04 0.69 120 -32
2015 01 12 100000 03 46 13.7 +08 27 44 0.486 1.318 123.9 38.3 4.9 7.10 326.8 193 +43 -04 0.60 133 -35
2015 01 13 100000 03 40 07.4 +10 48 14 0.493 1.315 122.2 39.3 5.0 6.88 326.9 190 +41 -04 0.50 147 -38
2015 01 14 100000 03 34 11.2 +13 04 13 0.502 1.312 120.5 40.2 5.0 6.64 326.9 186 +39 -04 0.40 160 -39
2015 01 15 100000 03 28 25.4 +15 15 13 0.511 1.309 118.8 41.2 5.0 6.38 326.9 183 +37 -04 0.30 174 -38
2015 01 16 100000 03 22 50.3 +17 20 55 0.522 1.307 117.1 42.1 5.0 6.11 326.9 180 +35 -04 0.21 172 -35
2015 01 17 100000 03 17 25.9 +19 21 05 0.534 1.304 115.3 43.0 5.1 5.84 326.9 177 +33 -04 0.13 157 -30
2015 01 18 100000 03 12 12.5 +21 15 40 0.546 1.302 113.6 43.8 5.1 5.56 326.8 175 +31 -04 0.06 142 -24

Peter Thomas
Oakleigh

[gregbradley]

Thanks Joe and Peter.

Very helpful. Imaging the comet now as I write. Its very bright in my scope.

Greg.

[mozzie]

Wow the comet is definitely brighter...naked eye know...
After a cloudy and wet Christmas first chance to see comet in almost a week..
It's been a hot soupy night and seeing wasn't perfect but comet was a pleasure to see a nice bright nucleus fuzzing outwards was not able to see a tail. And it's moving pretty quick over a 3 hour period it had moved several minutes and surprised me!! Color was not there but I tried to take a photo with my phone and it didn't work 😩as usual that's why I do visual.
Anybody not seen the comet yet should have a look a wonderful sight especially in binos.

Mozzie 🌠

[mental4astro]

I had my first Captain Cook of Lovejoy at the same time as Mozzie, on New Year's Eve. Below is my sketch of Lovejoy. What is most staggering about Lovejoy is that I could see its mottled tail with my 4" f/5 refractor! Visible, but oh so painfully faint and difficult to see.

Sketch was done from Hill End in NSW.

Alex.

PS. I have also posted this sketch in the DSO and Solar System sketching sticky in the Obs forum. I've posted more technical information about the sketch in that post. However, I apologize for the duplication.

[OzStarGazer]

It seems to be always cloudy at night here these days, even when it is not during the day. I cannot see a single star. :(

[doppler]

The comet is still getting brighter. I picked it up easily in the 50mm finder even with the bright moon near by. Here's a stack of 4 x 10sec exposures @iso1600 taken on the evening of 1/1/15. (10" f4.8 newt)

Rick

[lazjen]

Have you seen this by Gerald Rhemann via spaceweather.com:
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=106022

[doppler]

That is an amazing pic. WOW :eyepop:
I did a google search of his camera and scope and that's a pretty cool setup as well.

[cometcatcher]

That's slightly good isn't it... :bowdown:

I'm giving up now.

[lazjen]

I haven't even got to try yet to be able to give up! :D

[PeterEde]

It's lost it's tail. I thought it was just me who lost the tail.
Due to bright moon or inactivity?

[cometcatcher]

Probably a bit of both Pete. Moonlight kills tails but to be honest it's tail never was that bright. Not unless you're flying along side of it in the UFO that some of these dudes use for photography!

[mental4astro]

No Moon is a MUST to have a chance of seeing the tail.

The night I vewed Lovejoy the Moon set at 1:30am. Before then while it was up only the coma could be seen. Once the Moon was gone and no trace of glow was visible from the horizon, only then was I able to make out the tail. Very painfully faint, but the detail became noticeable with time.

Also, your best chance to see the tail is to drop the aperture and the magnification. A rich field scope is your best friend here. The tail needs a generous true field of view to be seen. The TFOV of the scope & EP combination I used is 5° - massive really. 25X80 binos could have a chance as you are using both eyes, but the field of view of these is closer to 2.5°. In my 4" f/5 refractor with an ES 30mm 82° eyepiece, I'm getting only 17X magnification. This is one of those situations where a RFT comes into its own. Aperture grunt or high magnification and a narrow TFOV just stands no chance.

[OzStarGazer]

What a shame. It will pass in front of my balcony very soon (in about an hour) and it is too bright to view it! :(

[kkara4]

Alex, were your visual tail obs with a dark sky or in suburbia sir?

[mental4astro]

:ashamed: Oops! Yes, a bit of an oversight...

DARK SITE TOO. My observation was done from Hill End in NSW, some 4hrs west of Sydney - nice dark sky there.

My apology for the omission of this crucial bit of info.

[kkara4]

haha that's ok! after appearing on a few news websites a few people have asked me how to find it. i said guys, its just a fuzzy blob to the eye. sadly the average joe doesnt care for anything less than :eyepop:, especially with a comet that has no readily visible tail :(

[PeterEde]

Just tried again. Nice core but alas no tail.
I have come to hate the full moon

[HenryNZ]

Can someone please tell me how to find or better still give me the day-to-day coordinates of the comet pretty please? I want to try my luck photographing it. Never imaged comets before (been doing mostly nebulas) I presume the exposure time will be much shorter. Any tips appreciated.

[PeterEde]

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/binocular-comet-lovejoy-heading-c2014-q2-lovejoy-1211142/
Full moon is our nemesis at the moment

[sharkbite]

I downloaded the free version of stellarium (for PC)

There are plug ins to place comets and other objects in the field, including Lovejoy.
It updates position in real time.


It was pretty easy to find after that...

[barx1963]

Or use Heavens-above.com

Cheers

Malcolm

[mac]

I used SkySafari Plus on my Android phone to locate it from my Auckland CBD apartment last night. The sky was extremely light-polluted, as one would expect, and I could only see Aldebaran, Zaurak and the fuzz of Pleiades with the naked eye in that part of the sky. Luckily the comet wasn't too far from Zaurak so I was able to target that, then sweep the sky to the right and downwards with my 10" dob and 26mm eyepiece to locate it. It appeared as it does in some of the sketches I've seen online; a tiny point of light surrounded by a reasonably large fuzzy area. I had to check SkySafari to make sure I hadn't landed on a globular cluster in the area by accident...

[gregbradley]

I imaged it again tonight. The tail seems quite longer and broader.

I intend another image tomorrow night as the moon will rise later.

Greg.

[cometcatcher]

Saw it naked eye tonight. Not much to look at, the usual fuzzy spot, but it's very photogenic.

[kkara4]

beautiful sunny morning here - hopefully it stays that way :lol:. ill try the ISS transit across sun too. will be first time getting telescope out in nearly a month!

[Analog6]

Where is it now? Hopped up this morning at 3 but clouded out here in Hobart

[doppler]

It is an evening comet look for it as soon as it is dark (at 3.00am it has probably set)

Here is a 28mm widefield pic from last night. It is easy to see with binoculars, not so easy naked eye.

Rick

[geolindon]

:)) WOAH, great views tonight, between clouds n wind vibrations. last night was better conditions but i could not see the tail; tonight its clearly visible in the finder and a real site in the ep's.
oh n i 'phoned Comet Catcher to see if he was imaging, :( but he is crook!

[doppler]

It's still getting brighter, it's getting easier to image the tail now. Here is a snap from last night iso 1600, stack of 20sec subs with the 10" f4.8 newt (about 2min total exposure).

Rick

[ShOrEbReAk]

hey

Please tell me I have finally found it! to me it looks like a star with a heap of gassy halo around it, like a halo streetlight effect. above the pelaides and down below the last two stars in the Taurus? :sadeyes::confused2:

Troy

[doppler]

:thumbsup: There are no bright globular clusters or other fuzzy's in that area so I would say yes.
Rick

[ShOrEbReAk]

YES :rofl::eyepop::thanx:

[ralph1]

Saw it naked eye easily last night, it was very conspicuous even without checking the chart so now I've wasted 2 sheets of paper:sadeyes: . In 10X50 binoculars the tail was clearly visible, it looked to be about 2 degrees long. In Australia we've only got a few weeks before it leaves our skies so if you haven't seen it now's your best chance.
Ralph

[knightrider]

I had a look at it last night also through my 10x50 binoculars. I can confirm I saw its tail also. I thought I might be seeing things but averted vision confirmed it.

[kkara4]

We finally had a beautiful clear night here in BNE last night - first night in 4 weeks really, and of course issues with balance and power supply :(.

But managed to fix it and drift align fairly well - took some images at 47x (9.25" @ f/10), right up to the light pollution limit and could only just make out the tail.

After that i piggy backed my camera and 300mm lens, tail quite obvious but alas too much LP and tail too faint for my location and naked eye viewing of the tail.

even with eyepiece in the scope i couldnt make out the tail :shrug:

[knightrider]

I could only make out the tail through the binoculars. Although the comet body I could make out with the naked eye.

We however do have relatively dark skies compared to a city