Comet Catalina moon & Venus

[gaa_ian]

I think this is an early morning show not to be missed.
I could say lots about this but I think Ian musgraves blog (http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/comet-c2013-us10-catalina-moon-and.html?showComment=1449342918548&m=1) lays it out for us all.
Whether you are looking with bino's, a scope or have your SLR at the ready I think this wil be s great conjunction to see, especially this coming Tuesday morning.
:thumbsup:

[jhills]

Thanks for the "heads-up" Ian. I'll give it a try.
John.

[h0ughy]

for Newcastle its low on the horizon, and with many mornings being clouded over the ocean i don't hold much hope in seeing all three, but you never know

[gaa_ian]

From our northern location in Cairns, I saw the comet this morning :thumbsup: with an 8" reflector at 42x with a 16.8 Ortho eyepiece. Condensed core with a Coma brighter to one side. Very slight green tinge. Observed in a fan shaped field of 5 Stars in Virgo below Venus between 4 & 4:30 am.
Looking forward to clear skies tomorrow!

[geolindon]

G day Ian and others,

i woke at 3 yesterday but some welcome rain was falling. woke again this morning and could see some stars between fast moving cloud so bumped across the paddocks and up the hill (for the best eastern views) with the 8".

rewarded with some spectacular back lit clouds and glimpses of Venus and Luna dramatically framed by cloud edges. in gaps i managed to see comet Catalina (just a fuzzy patch in the poor seeing), Mars and Jupiter and 3 moons.

i have had my weeties and waiting to watch Sol rise over the sea.

clear skies are but a memory, some decent cloud gaps are good :thumbsup:
L

just reading that yesterday Akatsuki space craft (on the second attempt) achieved orbit insertion at Venus
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/1207-live-from-sagamihara.html

[h0ughy]

very quickly grabbed a shot - tough target to image with two bright objects

[gaa_ian]

I managed to get one good image this morning and got another look at the fast moving Catilina.

[topheart]

Good on you Ian.
I woke up at 4 and just took a look.

Cheers,
Tim

[gaa_ian]

To my surprise, in addition to the 5 I saw around 10pm, I was able to watch a further 15 bright Geminids this morning between 4:15 & 4:45 am.
There would have been more but the radient is on my mountainous northern horizon. Worth getting up for these relatively slow bright meteors !