Comet C/2017 S3 (PANSTARRS) - Out Burst

[gaa_ian]

For those of us in the North this may be worth a look in the early morning:
"APPROACHING GREEN COMET EXPLODES: A comet that could become visible to the naked eye in August has just exploded in brightness. Amateur astronomer Michael Jäger‎ of Austria reports that Comet PANSTARRS (C/2017 S3) brightened 16-fold during the late hours of July 2nd, abruptly increasing in magnitude from +12 to +9. He took this picture of the comet's expanding green atmosphere shortly after the outburst:"
Quoted from Spaceweather.com

[gaa_ian]

Has anyone in Australia seen this outburst ?

[cometcatcher]

A bit low in the north for most of us Ian. It's a few degrees above the horizon here in Mackay but in the trees.

[gaa_ian]

Hi Kevin
Good to hear from you, its been a while !
I am in Gove NT ATM and for one more day before heading back to Cairns.
I have not been able to find a good map showing its path ?
So not sure if it will get better or worse for us.
As far as I can tell it is between Cassiopeia & Perseus & down a bit !
I tried this morning but did not have a clear NE horizon.
I will make the effort to go to the beach in the morning to see if I can spot it.

[cometcatcher]

Hi Ian, I load the parameters into Stellarium and track it from there. Though it's a painful process these days since they made it harder to do so. Looks like the comet will stay north for a while so I'll probably miss it.

[gaa_ian]

OK, I see why the charts are not common !
If you have one done could you publish it ?

[Merlin66]

http://lesia.obspm.fr/comets/lib/display-obs1.php?Num=19309

A very interesting spectrum of the comet - you can see where the colour comes from.