Its been a special time to be a bright comet enthuisiast, agreed mate! I guess you could say, at a stretch, this era all kicked off with SL9/Jupiter event in '94, and has wound up from there to present levels of interesting comet action!?
plus throw in the comet & asteroid probes/ and space observatories like SOHO ect./and internetBB-puters/+ cheap amazing gear and I would have to say definitely 'we have never had it better'!
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 27-10-2007 at 03:14 AM.
I've managed to observe to comet tonight, when the sky finally clears up a bit. It was an easy naked-eye comet, I estimate it to be somewhat equal in brightness with delta Per.
Through binoculars is something else. It was really big, bright and yellowish blob! No way anyone can mistaken it with normal pin-point stars. I didn't get the chance to view through the telescope, waiting in a couple of hours till it reach the meridian.
my northern horizon suffered from high clouds tonight, but could still see 17P ne, as a fuzzy star, reasonably easy most of the time! while the only other star visible in that area was alpha persei! binocs still again showed colour but not much outer coma.
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 27-10-2007 at 03:29 AM.
I know how you feel FD....i had 70 emails in my list this morning!
Did you see Seichii Yoshidas light curve??
i did see the graph OBMY its insane! LOL
have you seen the pics comin thru c-images? man o man!
got to love those digital cameras for this stuff, look forward to pics! - only wish we were getting the so-called visual 3D 'pearl' effect as good as those guys with it overhead some pics i have seen, really show it well
well caught, nice one Shah! enjoyed obs report too how big are you seeing outer coma? i have read reports of being it up too 3 arcminutes in dia. when high overhead in NH!?
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 27-10-2007 at 03:30 AM.
Woohoo, success at only 6 degrees above the horizon. The clouds finally cleared out for me, and left me with a great view through my 15x70 binoculars. Nice colour to this one.
These are some of the images i took last night, the close-up photo's were taken through my 10" dob afocally using a 40mm plossl eyepiece and Canon 400D, 2 second exposures @ ISO 1600.....the lighter one was taken lower down on the horizon and i had to brighten the image a little.
The wider angle shots show my Hilux and the 10" dob set up, the comet is.....if you imagine the triangle of stars above the scope its the bottom right "star".
These images were taken at 400 ISO and are 8 seconds each, slightly adjusted for brightness.
All pics taken from Walcha Aerodrome @ around 1 am, 27/10/07.
I wonder, if 17P Holmes has in fact been in a collision, has it been nudged into an orbit that will make it a Sun grazer and give us an even more spectacular display?
It's was a short period comet before the collision, will it still be one now?
I wonder, if 17P Holmes has in fact been in a collision, has it been nudged into an orbit that will make it a Sun grazer and give us an even more spectacular display?
It's was a short period comet before the collision, will it still be one now?
If it has been involved in a collision it must have hit a massive speed bump!
Non-gravitational effects will surely alter its orbit but how much won't be noticed until further astrometry is made, i doubt it could end up a sungrazer though as its orbit is low in eccentricity and has a perihelion distance of 2.1 AU, its period is 6.88 years.
Time will tell though, if its orbit has changed it may affect the perihelion date for its next return.....
Maybe Loomberah (Gordon) could elaborate on this further!?
I might have a go at that one, should get a good shot at it from here. What are the other two stars in the triangle called, Im still bumbling around the heavens...
I might have a go at that one, should get a good shot at it from here. What are the other two stars in the triangle called, Im still bumbling around the heavens...
The comet is in Perseus, the top star is Delta Persei and it is mag 3.02, the star to the left is Mirfak or Alpha Persei and its mag 1.81.
Will comet Holmes stay in Perseus at new moon? I mean will it be more favourable for southern hemisphere later on?
This comet will slowly end up in the northern hemisphere unfortunately, its inclination is 19 degrees to the ecliptic....
This link will demonstrate the orbit better than i can explain!
The objects circle in anti-clockwise motion, and north is up, but you can fiddle with the sliders and see it from different perspectives!
PS....Mark down this date....Dec 31st.. 2050, if you go to that date on the Orbit diagram in the link above it comes very close to Jupiter! That is of course if it doesn't change its habits between now and then!
Last edited by Outbackmanyep; 27-10-2007 at 10:07 PM.
Just saw the comet from South Head in Sydney. Was surprised at just how large and bright it was through 7x50 binoculars. Took my ZS80 as well but it didn't really show much extra detail. In fact, I preferred the binocular view as I think the wide field gave a much better impression of the comet's size.
I've just walked outside and onto the footpath (my back yard is very tree lined to the north) - even from there I'm looking towards a nearly full moon and about half a dozen sodium vapour lamps along the central divide island, all made worse by the fact that the atmosphere has a "high vapour" look to it.
I was rating my chances as pretty slim of seeing this comet, but I had a rough idea where I was looking, figured it had to be "near" that star just to the side of the trees opposite.... put my tiny 10x32 bino's to my eyes to start scanning that area ....
Yes, you guessed it, that "star" was in fact the comet! Through the little binos it's pretty clear that the real stars are all pinpoints whereas Comet Holmes is definitely a smudge-ball!
Debating now whether to take the 20x80's out, or the ETX-70 for more magnification but less light gathering ability ... or dammit should I just drag the dob out onto the neighbours driveway!
well this crappy shot was very much Spur of the moment stuff, I fell asleep in the chair waiting for this. I had every intention of getting the scope out and driving to a location with a northern horizon. But I was buggered after a big day, and we are now in daylight savings and only just moved the clock forward 1 hour, and paid for it i am pretty tired this morning.
I quickly got the 400D and a cushion from the lounge room and set it up on the front veranda. LOL well at least I can say I found it, not that I could see it with the light pollution and the full moon. If it is clear tonight I know where to look.
Took these last night with 30D 17-85mm lens. Comet naked eye and very low.
Could not find the comet at first because it is lower then i thought. Got the My-sky out and found it within 5sec.In Binoculars comet looks like a big fuzzy star. Very cool.
Phil
Its interesting Phil, have a look at the rotation difference between your shot and mine with that triangle of stars, shows what a difference the latitude makes.