wow! ive seen everything now lol - easy naked np from my light/moon saturated backyard 5d above my local horizon in a gap between trees - easy still around the +2.5 mag mark, naked eye. in binocs orange red in colour, just like reports and photos with, the brighter cc embedded the dimmer outer disc ball about 10 - 20 arcseconds in total size at a guess, in my 8x56 binocs - slightly bigger in the 20x80 binocs
observed clearly and well for nearly an hour
did look a little like a round red planetary nebulae, like some have described it
man we have had some weird comets in recent years - SW3/ great comet/ 2 naked eye comets at same time more than a few times, all sorts, makes the previous decades seem tame!
I was able to view this beautiful comet at 2:00 am using 20x80 binos. What an amazing sight very different. it has no visible tail but with a near full moon I didn't expect to see one. It is like all reported observations, planet like with a yellowish colour a very easy naked eye object to view even with strong moon light. I snapped the attached photo with my trusty coolpix.
mmmm. that horizons aproblem. Not only that its clouded out down here.
I asume that its not breaking up into pieces, so what is the suspected cause of this event, what is this comets make up icy, rocky?. and the obvious how long will it last ..... wouldnt it be awesome if it just completely fragmented.
im sure someone out there has looked into this........details please
clearing weather this weekend for NSW anyway. hope to make something of this, just haveto find a suitable horizon with as little or no light pollution. Fantastic image Mick
well the reports keep rollin in on the ml - a quick attempt at a summary and cherry pick of some posts by people like JBortle/A Hale and their take on it.
seems brightness steady/ still no tail/ last time it did this in 1892 at a similar distance (and came to be discovered) the outer coma eventually expanded to about .5d!! also last time it held its brightness at these levels for 2 or 3 weeks! and then underwent another smaller outburst around two months later.
as for composition/ i read a suggestion/loose theory from JBortle that structure could be honeycombed and its just a large sinkhole formed/ no danger to survival as it did the same over a hundred years ago, and is still around
apparently also a very nice visual telescopic object, which only about half of all comets are at some stage, IMO - will get the scope out tonight if sky clear - I was unprepared last night, didnt think i would be able to see it from here so well! yet another NE comet notch on the eyeballs i think its 15 or 16 ne comets for me now - they're adding up!
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 26-10-2007 at 04:05 PM.
Hmmm... too much cloud here and the horizon's not good... I think I'll go to Vancouver tomorrow and see what the view is like from there!
I'm off to Canada tomorrow for 3 weeks so I best try to have a look at it while I'm there. if I can get some clear skies - I gather they get a fair bit of rain this time of year there, but I'll do my best!
We've really had a great run of comets in the last decade and a bit! When I began comet observing in late 1980 it seemed an eternity between decent comets, in fact I used to get excited at anything brighter than mag 8
These days there seems to be decent comet nearly every year. By decent I mean clearly visible to the naked eye (mag 3 or so or better). If we miss getting seeing one in one year, we just get 2 the following year like this year. And what a unique event 17P is at the moment, it would problably be centuries before anyone witnesses a mega-outburst of this scale.
Amazingly I saw the comet with the naked eye tonight from Brisbane despite it being down amongst the scat cloud (there was an active thunderstorm just to the east). Very obvious and bright in binoculars. Here is full size crop from a single 1.6 second shot with 350D + 200mm lens at f3.5 + ISO400 (pushed nearly a stop in post processing). Gives you an idea how in looked in large binoculars.
Hey guys!
Just got back from the airstrip, i managed to view the comet and also get some afocal images through the 10" f/5 dob using 40mm eyepiece. Im really glad i got that Canon 400D, so easy on objects like this, 2 seconds @ ISO 1600 and its almost how the eye see's this comet...
Much like yours above Terry! Great shot!
Will post an image when i download them off the camera later today sometime!
Comet is about 6 or 7 degrees above my horizon now.....easily seen with naked eye!
Naked eye in full moonlight too, awesome!
What a year for comets!
I know how you feel FD....i had 70 emails in my list this morning!
Did you see Seichii Yoshidas light curve??
Won't be as exciting to general community though, they wanna see a huge flaming tail!
The amateur and professional scene is quite abuzz, part of the reason why i love comets is that they're so unpredictable and a wonderful sight to see when they display themselves!
If that image is correct in what we see in it, then its definitely a catastrophic break up of some kind....
Normally outbursts are attributed to physical nucleus break-up......
if I can get some clear skies - I gather they get a fair bit of rain this time of year there, but I'll do my best!
