Hi all. As I am new to the night skies, I don't understand all the names for the stars etc. I only know things like ...the southern cross and the pointers, saucepan, 7 sisters.etc. What I would like to know is..when c lovejoy is visible on the 29th Dec, what direction would I have to look to ( north, south etc ) from the south west of Western Australia.
Thanks.
Cheers Reverend.
You will have to orientate it upside down because it is for the Northern hemisphere but at the beginning of January it approaches near Orion and around 17-19 January it will be near Pleiades (Seven Sisters).
You might have a better chance of spotting the comet with a pair of binoculars. Just look for a fuzzy green star like object.
Yesterday I did a write up on it our facebook page.
If you don't have access to facebook, I'll copy & paiste below.
In particular, take a look at my easy guide to finding it in one of the links
Quote:
Heads up Australia! Please welcome our new Christmas comet -
C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy! Could we *be* any more proud & happy for IceInspace member Terry Lovejoy right now?! He's given us our second Christmas comet (the unforgettable great Aussie Christmas comet W3 in 2011 was the other). Honestly, he's spoiling us rotten lol.
Now, Q2 isn't as bright as the great 2011 Christmas comet - BUT - it has now become the brightest comet of 2014 currently sitting around magnitude 5 in the constellation of Puppis, after recently undergoing a rapid brightening by a whole magnitude (don't confuse this with an outburst event which at this stage, doesn't seem to be). So don't be surprised if it ends up making 4th magnitude by the end of Dec/early Jan. Reports are coming thru that it's just visible to the naked eye from a dark site as a small dim round, fuzzy patch. If you have binoculars, get them out! They show a gorgeous sight- the comet is quite large and hard to miss (I observed it in binoculars over a bright street light and had no problems seeing it). But please don't expect to see a tail (tho some sharp eyed observers from a dark site might spot some tail), just embrace the beauty.
Puppis is loaded with observing eye candy. If you're interested in doing a tour of the area after you've seen the comet, see my guide here (covers binocular & telescope targets along with some serious challenges for bigger telescopes): http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=128740
Hi Reverend
Here is a sky map for the 29th @ around 9pm Lovejoy is at the top of the map.
so look up to the East at around 60 degrees from the horizon.
I could see this in a 9x63 finderscope from the Perth northern suburbs so it's one of the easier comets to locate.
Been looking at it now in the 12". It is amazing how bright it is here in the middle of Sydney. I can see the brightened core quite easily. Its going to look great from Wiruna this weekend.
Very nice comet. Viewing at 150x in the 20". Bright with a lovely wide halo. Hint of a tail, but transparency is a bit dodgy here tonight so not really sure.
It was forming a nice obtuse triangle with 4 fairly faint stars which made it easy to see movement. Coming back to it 10 mins later it had clearly moved on.
My eyes must be painted on, 'cause buggered if I could find it... I looked from 9 pm to just before 10.30 pm Western Standard Time. Would that be the right time for over here?. I will keep trying until I do.
Cheers Reverend.
Hi Reverend,
That chart I posted was for the 29th December.
I have posted here a chart for tonight.
If you look to the right of the saucepan (Orion) you will see two bright stars (Sirius and Canopus) the comet is approximately halfway between these two stars at around 53 degrees off the horizon at 9pm
My eyes must be painted on, 'cause buggered if I could find it... I looked from 9 pm to just before 10.30 pm Western Standard Time. Would that be the right time for over here?. I will keep trying until I do.
Cheers Reverend.
I thought I was the only one that asked them Malcolm.
I have 8X40 Nikon binoculars, and a Canon 7D with a 400 X 5.6 lens in case I see it and will attempt to take some pics.
I'm going to asses the situation tonight, it's only just starting to rise here in Spain and I'm not confident the positioning is great right now. I could commandeer my 3 y.o room but I'm fairly certain that isn't one of my better ideas at 2am.
Reverend, don't give up. Maybe the sky transparency was very poor. Malcolm touched on this subject a bit. This is a big killer on comets. The last couple of times I haven't been able to see it either in my 10x40 binos and I know exactly where it is.
It's very hard to notice high cloud at night time.
David, I'm glad to hear you're still getting good use out of that eyepiece.
. I looked from 9 pm to just before 10.30 pm Western Standard Time. Would that be the right time for over here?. I will keep trying until I do.
