Comet Watchers should mark early November in their calendar, as Comet C/2007F1 (LONEOS) appears low in west at the end of evening twilight. It passes through the head of Scorpio during the first week of November, although like many comets will be low in the sky and will require a dark sky to be seen to any advantage. The current ephemeris puts the comet around mag 6, but it could easily be 1-2 magnitudes brighter (judging by a recent observations).
Terry
Last edited by CometGuy; 21-09-2007 at 04:47 AM.
Reason: typo's
Yes, today's reported observation of magnitude 9.3 from J. Gonzalez in Spain was a little surprising, given its sluggish performance through winter. It looks like its prospects are improving.
Last edited by Greg Bryant; 22-09-2007 at 08:28 AM.
Here is an ephemeris for c/2007 f1 Loneos which I generated from the JPL site. I use Horizons often to print off ephemera for the out planets and asteroids. A really handy on-line program.
Here is my previous PDF file in MS Word format 2000/XP. It might be a bit more user-friendly for most. And I've updated it with latest mag and co-ordinates. Will anyone attempt to catch it in these early days at mag 9-10??
Last edited by Stevo69; 26-09-2007 at 08:20 AM.
Reason: Updated Ephemeris data as of 2007-09-26
The attached file shows the comet's altitude above the horizon every 2 days from 26/10 to 25/11. The star background is not correct. The Sun (yellow circle) is just setting at 6pm on 26/10 and the comet is mag 5.4 when the track starts. Thanks to SkyMapPro.
Looks like i have to make another trip to "comet hill" where i saw McNaught earlier in the year!
Yahoo comet groups will keep me informed of up-to-date changes!
This is starting to get interesting, veteran comet observer Reinder Bouma observed the comet on October 2 at magnitude 7.6. Although its hard to gauge how much effect low altitude is having on the comets percieved brightening, at this rate it could be as bright as mag 3.5 in early November. A noticeable tail has also developed and this should develop a lot further as it continues to near the sun (0.4 AU on October 28). I could see this comet becoming similar to Comet Ikeya-Zhang in 2002, fingers crossed!
