Wow, thankyou for that info Ian, you have done many kms, but seen this comet at its best under beautiful dark skies. Very sad to see it fading away now, but we have witnessed one amazing comet, and that will be with is forever!!
Concur with Liz. Really enjoyed all your reports Ian and I suspect you may have clocked up more observing hours than most on this comet. Alas, I haven't seen it since the 27th, but happy with what I saw and looking forward (big time!) to the next one.
Film...lovely to see that word again. My last astro film shots were of McNaught. Switched to digital soon after. Going through a box of slides looking for hidden treasures weeks after the event is something I still miss.
Yep, fully agree with Liz. Here are some of my images from the wee hours of 5 Jan, linked below. There was still a bit of moonlight in the sky but the Moon had disappeared behind the hills. 2:10am, 05 Jan local time (15:10, 04 Jan UT): http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...fulladjred.jpg
Experiment earlier in the evening at 55mm, in bright moonlight (11:55pm on the 4th, local time). Shows what a ghost this comet is now and how hard it is to get any detail in a bright sky: http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...UT55mmtext.jpg
Visually wasn't much to see with the lingering moonlight. I seemed to get some faint flashes of the tail in averted vision but nothing I could hold. I don't think that three bright stars spaced out along & close to the rough line of the tail helped.
Terry's comet was visible this morning with 20x80 binoculars at 4:30 am AEDT (17:30 UT). I traced the tail for about 16 degrees.
The comet was not visible with the naked eye or with 7x50 binoculars as far as I could tell.
I wasn't planning on getting up this morning due to a lack of a good sleep recently, and my weather prospects weren't that great. Nature thought otherwise. I could tell by the cooler temperature that it must be a partially clear outside, and I was right.
I just missed a big gap over the comet at 3.45 a.m. local time, but there was enough clearing coming in from the west that made me think it was worth waiting around for. Finally at 4.00 a.m. (15.00 hrs U.T.) there was a break, but with some broken cloud through it so that I didn't have a perfect view.
I saw about 15 degrees from the head with averted vision, this was the brightest bit. I traced the tail up to Alpha Volantis in my 10 x 50 bino's. At that point the tail was over 2 degrees wide. My view was confirmed for me by a picture that John Drummond, of Gisborne, N.Z. posted this morning.
thanks for that link to Justin's great shots from this morning. It looks to be going to the edge of the field on the second frame, which makes it about 36 degrees long.
Missed out last night because of haze, now no Moon-free skies till Thurs 12 (tiny window after twilight) and Fri (better). What a show it's been! And what will be left of the tail of the comet when we get dark skies again?
And David Sargeant's thoughts regarding Lovejoy's nucleus ...
Quote:
Hi all,
>> Just a few ideas to put before the group.
>> As I wrote previously, I suspect that the initial intrinsic faintness of
>> this comet was not so much a function of the small size of the nucleus,
>> but of the presence of a surface crust of refractory material. If the
>> nucleus was about 500 metres diameter (as against the 100 - 200 as
>> initially estimated) and covered by an insulating crust, this might
>> explain how it survived perihelion passage intact. If the insulating
>> layer was blown off around perihelion, this may even have formed a "sun
>> umbrella" of particles that shielded the freshly-exposed icy surface of
>> the nucleus, rather as is thought to have happened to Seki-Lines in 1962
>> (analysis of the dust tail suggests that this comet shut down for a few
>> hours at perihelion - q = 0.03 AU - which also helps to explain why
>> there were no daylight sightings of this intrinsically bright object).
>> In the case of Lovejoy, a similar event may have been a factor in
>> preserving its existence. Once the meteoric cloud dispersed, the comet
>> burs
> t into furious activity, however by then the worst of its ordeal was
> already over.
>> The presence of an ion tail clearly indicated an active nucleus
>> following perihelion. However, as this has this has now disappeared, it
>> may be that ice-driven activity has ceased. This could mean that the
>> nucleus has disappeared, or run out of ice or (I think the most likely
>> explanation) has had the ice cooked out of the surface layers. In other
>> words, the comet may by now have built up a new insulating layer that is
>> effectively keeping heat from underlying ice.
>> Yet, the "head" appears to be persisting as if some dust continues to be
>> released. Just a speculative thought, but electrostatic repulsion caused
>> by solar radiation can levitate fine dust on the surface of the Moon
>> (causing the unexpected crepuscular rays seen by the Apollo astronauts)
>> and is thought responsible for the small flare experienced by Phaethon
>> in 2009. With respect to the latter, David Jewitt called Phaethon a
>> "rock comet" - capable of low-level activity even in the absence of ice
>> - and suggested that this process may even be responsible for the
>> formation of the Geminid meteor stream. For what it is worth, I suggest
>> that the present weak activity of Lovejoy could be due to this process
>> lifting dust from what has again become a totally encrusted nucleus.
>> All very speculative I know, but comments welcome.
>> Cheers,
>> David
>>
Rob, thanks for the link to your site. A great collection on display there.
Here is my best shot on film from Thursday morning. It was taken from our eastern alternative site at Stonehenge Aotearoa, about 10 minutes south of today's terrible balloon tragedy near Carterton.
The colour picture is with my trusty old Nikon F witha 35mm lens @ f/2.8. Exposure was 15 minutes on Fuji Superia X-tra 400 film.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I left the control cord for the digital camera behind, well I also left the 8x lupe that I have to use to get a focussed view through the top down viewer on the Nikon, the original mechanism long since broken. I really wanted to frame the Pointers & Crux in with the comet, but because I was shooting blind so to speak I dare not risk not getting the comet in after travelling so far to do it!
I've added a B&W negative to show the tail to its best. There is significant vignetting at the top of the frame due to the lens being wide open.
Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you - and thanks, Glen, for sharing your amazing ability to calculate the size of the tail as it lengthens
Here is closer view of the comet on the morning of January 6 (5.7 UT). The spiral galaxy is IC4633 and parts of the Integrated Flux Nebula are visible in the frame. The comet itself has moved during the exposures and this has made the central spine appear wider than it actually is. Exposure is 30 x 30 seconds with QHY9 and C8 f2.1.
love that shot especially that you have picked up that I.F. Nebulosity which I have cruised around in with our 20 inch Dobo a few times. I know that area around I.C. 4633 as being one of the brighter areas in that nebula. I'm surprised to see that spine still so strong in your image. That was the one thing in running around photographing your comet that I now regret not doing, and that was spending some time observing it at magnification!
I put together an album in FaceBook of my best shots from the past three weeks for all to enjoy.
That is what I love about astronomy, a month ago this apparition was but a dream. After a hectic three weeks it now only seems like one! Atleast I have some pics to prove that it wasn't all just a dream, and I have seen my first Kreutz member.
Some great images here, and thanks for the magnified view Terry. That was something I was hoping to see more of too.
Still can't see any signs of a distinct nucleus, I wonder where it is hiding.
Awesome Kearn
Writing songs is what I do now too, so I really appreciate this.
Should be a hit on the Astrocamp circuit
I look forward to getting together for a jam some time
Gday Ian, wow thanks for that, another writer! its all good clean fun eh mate, much like this awesome comet apparition we have had! jam is a good idea .. shoot me a email when ya in town!
Got a small window tonight to try for the comet. Twenty seconds was as long as I could expose for without fogging the image completely. Getting close to the LMC. 24mm lens at F1.4.
if I hadn't seen your picture I may have doubted what I saw tonight. The local forecast was for thunderstorms by dark so I was surprised to get a call from my old mate Noel Munford in the city saying how clear the sky was. I quickly ended the conversation so I could go out and get a look before the rising moon became too dominant. It was 9.25 U.T. (10.25 Daylight Time) and the moon had only been up for 5 minutes.
It was a hard case situation with the solar twilight receeding in the west and the lunar twilight growing in the north east. In between and up high in the south sat the Clouds of Magellan in the darkest part of the sky. A very vague but persistent appendage to the LMC coming off underneath the Tarantula end of the Bar was best seen with averted vision, but occasionally with direct viewing. A few pesky clouds tried forming in the area. They moved off but the weak, elongated glow persisted. Binoculars weren't any help at all.
I'd say that the tail was no more than 8 degrees long, about the same as the brighter part shown in Lester's picture. In positive and negative views of Lester's shot there is a weak suggestion that the comet may trail off beyond the LMC, but it is not certain.
When I looked to my north I saw lightning flashes so it was good of them to hold off for an hour, otherwise I doubt that I will get another chance before Monday night. I just splashed out on a 450D so the weather will be puke for me for the next few days. Then I'll be ready to give it another crack!
Here are some of my images from the wee hours of 5 Jan, linked below. There was still a bit of moonlight in the sky but the Moon had disappeared behind the hills. 2:10am, 05 Jan local time (15:10, 04 Jan UT):
