Sorry that is an old shot of comet Hyakutake taken on 25/03/1996 at 3.00am. I have had a couple of goes at seeing ison without success. My best comet was Comet Ikeya–Seki in 1965 (now I am showing my age)
I managed to image ISON again on the morning of 23 Nov (22 Nov UT) but this morning (25 Nov, or 24 Nov UT) I couldn't get a trace of it. It was in very, very light sky in the top of a dust band. Zubenelgenubi (Alpha Librae, mag 2.75) was clearly showing, slightly deeper into the dust band than ISON but at slightly greater solar elongation.
Well, that's it for me - I'll enjoy whatever show it puts on for the space-based solar observatories, and what happens after that, happens!
I managed to image ISON again on the morning of 23 Nov (22 Nov UT) but this morning (25 Nov, or 24 Nov UT) I couldn't get a trace of it. It was in very, very light sky in the top of a dust band. Zubenelgenubi (Alpha Librae, mag 2.75) was clearly showing, slightly deeper into the dust band than ISON but at slightly greater solar elongation.
Well, that's it for me - I'll enjoy whatever show it puts on for the space-based solar observatories, and what happens after that, happens!
Cheers -
well thats excellent sleuthing to find this thing - personally i think it is the flop of the century, lovejoy and mcnaught far outshine this. but i am green with envy we dont get to see it.
well thats excellent sleuthing to find this thing - personally i think it is the flop of the century, lovejoy and mcnaught far outshine this. but i am green with envy we dont get to see it.
Lovejoy? Phuh! According to the November issue of UK's Astronomy Now, "Some consider Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) a Great Comet, but its peak occurred when it was so near the Sun that it was only visible through telescopes." p20, article by Richard Jakiel.
On p24 in an article titled "Great Comets" by Richard Talcott, in the 21st century only two comets are listed, McNaught obviously but strangely PANSTARRS: "Early 2013 brought another deep-space visitor that at least came close to the Great classification." It what??!! Lovejoy dips out completely.
Obviously I was mistaken when I imagined I saw a gigantic naked eye comet around Christmas 2011. And also badly mistaken in completely under-rating the "Almost Great Comet" PANSTARRS. Must have had the telescope backwards. Sheesh, where do they get these writers from?
They will probably crap their pants when when they see a real (naked eye) great comet. I was fortunate to see comet Ikeya–Seki as an 8 year old but the story my grandmother told me of watching the tail of Haleys comet rising in the east until it was nearly overhead before the head was visible always makes me wonder if I will see such a sight.
Hi all
I tried without sucess to observe ISON just before sunrise at Strezlecki Lookout Newcastle. Just now I tried to observe it in daylight with my 10 inch scope. First aligning on the Sun (with full aperature solar filter) Focusing accurately on the Sun, with 16mm nagler. Moved scope away from the Sun then used my Argo Navis to move to ISON's exact position. Upon removing the filter not even a hint of it. Just to check everything was accurate I moved to Mercury, and could immediately see it quite easily. Moving back to ISON, not even a hint.
So clearly it has nothing on Comet Mcnaut, whch I was able to observe in the middle of the day for several days around the perihelion time. I doubt we will be able to see ISON even at Perihelion.
Scott
Bad luck Scott, I know there were a few of you out there trying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tornado33
Hi all
I tried without sucess to observe ISON just before sunrise at Strezlecki Lookout Newcastle. Just now I tried to observe it in daylight with my 10 inch scope. First aligning on the Sun (with full aperature solar filter) Focusing accurately on the Sun, with 16mm nagler. Moved scope away from the Sun then used my Argo Navis to move to ISON's exact position. Upon removing the filter not even a hint of it. Just to check everything was accurate I moved to Mercury, and could immediately see it quite easily. Moving back to ISON, not even a hint.
So clearly it has nothing on Comet Mcnaut, whch I was able to observe in the middle of the day for several days around the perihelion time. I doubt we will be able to see ISON even at Perihelion.
Scott
It's 6.20am now and they said they still cannot see ISON.
About an hour ago, Carl Battams said they were going to give it another couple more hours before they start writing ISON's obituary.
C. Alex Young, Phil Plaitt and Karl Battams weren't holding much hope for it. There was no head visible in the images and the tail looked like it was one of debris the way it was shaped.
And C. Alex Young said that there will be no meteor shower either, as ISON will not be making that closest approach to Earth on 26th December for that to happen.
It's the first time in observable history that a first time Oort Cloud comet would be grazing the sun. There's a lot of science in that regarding the formation of our solar system.
This is why there was a global observing campaign on ISON to watch it closely.
Phil Plait was saying tho that hopefully they'll still be able to get some information from the debris.
Last edited by Suzy; 29-11-2013 at 08:21 AM.
Reason: typo.
Lovejoy dips out completely.
