Thanks Suzy. I couldn't see it last night either, and I spent about an hour and a half looking ( my neck couldn't handle much longer.). I was wondering whether my bino's weren't strong enough. Does it look green like the pics on here are?
The Guide 9 map below shows Comet Lovejoy's path from tonight to Jan 4.
The map is the right way up at 9pm AEDT.
On 29 and 30 Dec the comet is near M79.
Rigel is 16.4 degrees to the left of the globular M79.
Reverend
My guess is your expectations may be a little high as to what it will look like. In my 20" dob I couldn't see any colour, so you certainly won't. Also I reckon the halo that I could see was about 10' across, but i am picking up the fainter outer parts of the halo that 40mm bino objectives won't pick out.
Really what you are looking for is a "fuzzy" star when all the others look sharp, although Suzy may be able to give you a better handle on the image in binos similar to yours.
I just had a quick look at it tonight in my 10x50 binos and it was easy to find, quite large but very diffuse. I'm going to have to get my dob back together if I want to see any detail, I think. But I know what was around that area and what comets often look like (not much at all visually!) so I agree with the comment that expectations might be a bit high. But also I've found that if you're not used to seeing faint fuzzies I could place it right in the middle of the eyepiece for you and you still wouldn't see it! Its just a matter of educating your eyes and brain as to what to expect. Best to look at it as a small educational challenge - and one day down the track you'll be telling some other newby how you looked straight through it...
Got my own binos out tonight just after midnight. Nearly directly overhead so 15x70s not easy to use but the comet was a very easy get. In the 20" the thin tail stretching away to the north was very obvious.
Last night Comet Lovejoy was easily visible in my 50mm finder, it looked similar to the mag 4 globular cluster 47 Tuc.
In a 16" telescope the comet was about 12' across and the tail was approx. 1.5 degrees long.
The tail shows up well if you rock your telescope back and forth across it.
Reverend
In my 20" dob I couldn't see any colour, so you certainly won't. Also I reckon the halo that I could see was about 10' across, but i am picking up the fainter outer parts of the halo that 40mm bino objectives won't pick out.
Doesn't quite work like that Malcolm. This comet has been well-observed visually by comet observers across the world and coma diameters up to 20' are being reported in binoculars (the general rule is that the smallest instrument capable of making the observation should be used so nearly all the formal observations being submitted now are binocular or naked-eye ones). Imaging shows a coma diameter well in excess of 20'.
As to colour, well it's an individual thing. I've seen several reports of colour put up by experienced comet observers. A group of us were viewing it at a club do here last Wednesday night and I asked the guys whether the comet showed any colour, as each one viewed it (through 8" SCT & 130mm reflector). No-one could make out any colour, including me.
But last Sunday I took out my newly-fixed telescope (just a finder scope issue) mid-evening and I was surprised to see a very distinct bluish-green tinge to it - 4.5" f8 reflector at 43x I should add. This tinge wasn't apparent in deep sky objects viewed before and after. Transparency wasn't fantastic unfortunately and later on when the sky cleared up I was too busy photographing and didn't bring the scope out. The only other comet I've ever seen colour in was C/2012 F6 (Lemmon), a similarly bright, very gassy comet. That one was confirmed 'independently' by another viewer (quite inexperienced) who was there, through the same scope and with no prompting ("OMG, it's green!!").
The light you see from the coma of this comet comes almost exclusively from broad diatomic carbon emissions in the blue-green end of the visible spectrum and is different from, say, a galaxy whose light comes from the collective continuum of billions of stars, or an emission nebula whose light comes from very narrow and specific emission bands, or the coma of a very dusty comet whose light comes from the reflection of our very own sunlight.
So there you have it Malcolm - since we'd both agree that magic doesn't exist, there must be a rational explanation within the laws of physics and the biology of the human eye. I don't think mass delusion would cut it, LOL!
This is about as close to a binocular view as I can show. It's a single frame from my short F5.5 ED80, which has about the same FOV as binoculars roughly. I've wound the saturation down to simulate a visual view.
Doesn't quite work like that Malcolm. This comet has been well-observed visually by comet observers across the world and coma diameters up to 20' are being reported in binoculars (the general rule is that the smallest instrument capable of making the observation should be used so nearly all the formal observations being submitted now are binocular or naked-eye ones). Imaging shows a coma diameter well in excess of 20'.
As to colour, well it's an individual thing. I've seen several reports of colour put up by experienced comet observers. A group of us were viewing it at a club do here last Wednesday night and I asked the guys whether the comet showed any colour, as each one viewed it (through 8" SCT & 130mm reflector). No-one could make out any colour, including me.
But last Sunday I took out my newly-fixed telescope (just a finder scope issue) mid-evening and I was surprised to see a very distinct bluish-green tinge to it - 4.5" f8 reflector at 43x I should add. This tinge wasn't apparent in deep sky objects viewed before and after. Transparency wasn't fantastic unfortunately and later on when the sky cleared up I was too busy photographing and didn't bring the scope out. The only other comet I've ever seen colour in was C/2012 F6 (Lemmon), a similarly bright, very gassy comet. That one was confirmed 'independently' by another viewer (quite inexperienced) who was there, through the same scope and with no prompting ("OMG, it's green!!").
The light you see from the coma of this comet comes almost exclusively from broad diatomic carbon emissions in the blue-green end of the visible spectrum and is different from, say, a galaxy whose light comes from the collective continuum of billions of stars, or an emission nebula whose light comes from very narrow and specific emission bands, or the coma of a very dusty comet whose light comes from the reflection of our very own sunlight.
So there you have it Malcolm - since we'd both agree that magic doesn't exist, there must be a rational explanation within the laws of physics and the biology of the human eye. I don't think mass delusion would cut it, LOL!
Cheers -
Thanks for that Rob
Had another look at it on Saturday and Sunday night. Interestingly this time the colour was obvious, but the transparency and seeing was nowhere is good as Friday night. So possible explanation is that I am so used to looking at DSO's and not expecting colour that I don't even see it when it is there!
With the diameter, my main purpose was to make sure that the OP had a more realistic idea of the size of the object rather than an exact measurement, hence my comment that in 10x40s he should be looking for a "fuzzy star".
You are certainly right about Comet Lemmon a couple of years ago, in my 20" it was really green.
Cheers Malcolm! I'll admit that if I wanted a knock-out view of a comet however bright (but not too big!) I'd choose a 20" SDM over a 4.5" Tasco any day! However that's a pretty mono-dimensional view of astronomy and if I wanted to do accurate, formal comet observations I'd use the appropriate instrument, in this case binoculars, and naked-eye if it gets much brighter. The problem with big aperture on bright comets is that it distorts the relative magnitude in something called the "aperture effect". This can be corrected but probably not in such a mismatch as 20" versus binoculars! I'd also be extremely surprised if you're not actually seeing a vast coma through the 20", after all light is light! The problem may be that the gradient is imperceptible and there is no clear end to it - but there is a noticeable gradient change at similar diameter to what you reported. That should be clear to you and probably has the appearance of the limits of the coma.
As far as the colour goes, the light-adapted human eye is optimised to 555nm (in the green) and this may assist in picking up greenish colour in bright comets in relatively small apertures.
Reverend, your 8x40 binoculars should pick it up. As well as Glen, I too picked it up very easily in my 9x50 finder. It's quite large.
I can't make out any colour either thru binos or the scope but I'll keep trying. And no matter how many times I tapped the scope and used averted vision, I couldn't make out a tail - just an elongation. I measured the coma thru my 10" dob at 9' arc mins (close to your measurements Macolm!). Perhaps light pollution is a factor. Tho I was able to easily see the blue colour in comet ISON, under a street light.
Isn't it interesting how our eyes see either green or red, like in planetary nebs. I read somewhere it's to do with the makeup of our eyes . For instance, I only ever see blue. Well... except Orion is green - that's the only green thing I've seen.
I just looked at Comet Lovejoy with 20x80 binoculars.
It was high in the sky (alt 80d) and 2.5 degrees of the comet's tail was visible.
The comet seems to be a bit fainter than 47 Tuc and larger than the globular.
Reverend, have you got a tablet like an iPad or Android?
Install one of the excellent astronomy apps like Redshift, Distant Suns or Star Walk. They have a mode that uses the compass etc to display the stars which are in front of you when you hold them up. Then when someone says "it's in Canis Major" your app will help you find it.
These apps are only a few dollars. Sky Walk HD is $1.29 right now for an XMas special.
They're enormously simpler to use (in my opinion) than maps, and certainly a lot more useful than "face North!"
I just looked at Comet Lovejoy with 20x80 binoculars.
It was high in the sky (alt 80d) and 2.5 degrees of the comet's tail was visible.
The comet seems to be a bit fainter than 47 Tuc and larger than the globular.
glen your comments echo my thoughts 100% after viewing last night. what a lovely sight.
Reverend, have you got a tablet like an iPad or Android?
Thanks everyone for all the good advice. My young bloke just downloaded a program called Google Sky Map on my phone ( as I don't have an ipad or the like ). I will study it up today and try it out tonight before I go owling..
Comet Lovejoy is a naked eye object tonight, about mag 4.5.
It is slightly brighter than the mag 4.7 star Hipparcos number 24927.
In a 16" telescope the comet's coma is nearly 20' across.
). I was wondering whether my bino's weren't strong enough. Does it look green like the pics on here are?
. For instance, I only ever see blue. Well... except Orion is green - that's the only green thing I've seen.
