Two evening visual comets - what a treat!

[andyc]

After a few cloudy evenings (following a long run of clear evenings I didn't properly take advantage of), and seeing some of the excellent PANSTARRS / Lemmon combination photos in the Photo Gallery, it was time to have a go this evening in Melbourne. Time to grab the beastie and see if I could catch PANSTARRS, which I hadn't yet had a look at.

I'm lucky with a pretty low southwestern horizon -I can see down to about 8 deg. And with Formalhaut as a guide, it popped out fo the twilight in the binoculars about 30 minutes after sunset, a classic cometary 'hairy star'. The view in both the little scope and the 16" was great, and in the 16" there was a lovely view over the next 20 minutes of a bright starlike nucleus and a short 1/4 - 1/2 deg tail (still in decent twilight). Two distinct jets/concentrations coming out of the nucleus, one off to the side and one fairly straight back, and the tail swept up and back from the coma. Best comet view in quite a few years for me!

I picked up Lemmon about an hour after sunset, well up in the south/southwest. Much bigger, round coma, but a fainter nucleus, and a faint indistinct tail that promised much if the sky was darker.

PANSTARRS was also visible to the naked eye about 45 mins after sunset - with trees as a marker and knowing just where it was, I could hold it with direct vision in the twilight as a little stellar point. It's probably easier now, but it is below my horizon!

So a first for me - two bright comets with distinct tails in the same sky, both very different but both intriguing.

And to top it off, a quick glance at Jupiter showed a satellite's crisp shadow transit starting with a bite out of Jupiter's eastern limb and excellent belt detail in surprisingly good seeing for a windy night (it is Io). The Solar System's a busy place tonight!

If you've not seen comets before, then the next week or so is an excellent chance, whether it's with the naked eye, binoculars or telescope :thumbsup:

[michaellxv]

It's a nice treat isn't it :)

I went down to the beach with the binos for a clear view to the SW. I thought PANSTARRS might be too low with the usual cloud bank on the horizon but I found it just above them . Once I knew where it was and it got dark enough I too could see it naked eye before it disappeared into cloud. Through the binos the tail looked nice and long.

LEMMON is definately a different beast, larger coma but not as bright and I could not see the tail from where I was.

[Tinderboxsky]

Yes, two comets in the one night is a treat I have been waiting for and at last we had a clear warm night with good seeing and transparency.

Panstarrs was visible in 7X50 binos at 8.30 pm in the twilight and easily naked eye visible, including its tail from 8.50 pm. Best views were at 40X in my 4 inch refractor. It provided quite a sight as the comet and tail slowly descended towards and finally disappeared behind trees on a ridge approx 10 kilometers away at 9.20 pm.

Comet Lemon was also an easy target with some faint possible naked eye glimpses, though not enough for me to claim a naked eye sighting. Best views of the tight bright centre and coma and long tail was at 40X using the 4 inch refractor

So, my first time for two comets in the one night too - very pleasing.

Steve

[Gatewave]

Are any of them still visible from Sydney? I think PANSTARRSis below horizon now but what about Lemon?

[andyc]

If the sky is clear and your horizon is low, it may be possible to catch panstarrs over the next two, perhaps three, nights. But it's getting lower each night, quickly now.

[Gatewave]

what about the Lemmon? and what direction should I be looking?

[Sir]

Hi all,

I see most of the posters are from southern Australian latitudes... I'm from Brisbane - can I still see these guys or is it too late? I'm guessing I'll need a very low SW horizon?

Cheers