Comet Hunting Morning

[gaa_ian]

Gove Amateur Astronomers (GAA) are having a comet hunting morning tomorrow morning from 4am at Middle Beach Car Park.
We will be seeking to track down comets: C/2012 V2 Linear, C/2013 R1 Lovejoy, C/2012 S1 Ison & 2P/Enke
Equipment will be a set of Pentax 16x60 Bino's & an Astroscan 105mm scope
Not to mention a look at Jupiter & the odd meteor.
Go on, surprize me & tell me you are in Gove, and will come along :eyepop:

[AG Hybrid]

Why not try for comet Brewington? Its just a few degrees from Neptune and relatively bright at mag 9.6 at the moment.

[mithrandir]

Ian, here's the current list of comets for you brighter than mag 15.5. Good hunting.

Gove's a bit far to travel for one night. :)

[gaa_ian]

Thanks Andrew and Adrian for the advice.
I did not get started till about 4:15, but did manage to spot both Ison and Enke albeit very faint though the binoc's, and a little clearer through the Astroscan. If I can manage another morning, I will set up the LX-90 for a bit more resolving power. We were frustrated by the morning sea clouds rolling across the field of view. But thus is the life of an astronomer !
I will have to try for Brewington next go, as I did not realise it had brightened so much.
Saw a good number of meteors though (Aprox 12) from some of the active minor showers and sporadics in the northern sky.
Southern comets page was very helpful in planning this observing session !

[malau]

Is that possible to see from Sydney?

[AG Hybrid]

I tried for it last night. But with the moon at 40+ %. No chance.

[mithrandir]

The list I made for Ian might be slightly different to one for Sydney since we are ~21 degrees south of him so some northern ones might be impossible. At the moment there aren't any brighter than mag 15.5 between 55N and 76N so the same list will work for Sydney.



Moonset is ~01:20 on the 13th so after that you might have better luck.

[AG Hybrid]

Too late for me. Got work the day after. Luckily it will still be in that area of the sky and similarly as bright during the next new moon.
Should looks pretty awesome at Katoomba.

[malau]

If I want to see, which direction should I look at?

p.s. Im a beginner so I dont understand most of the terms :P

[gaa_ian]

Comets have caught my interest at the moment, so I have set up a bit of a rough n ready homepage for comets (http://everythingastronomy.com/2013-the-year-of-comets/) with a few links.

[AG Hybrid]

Come to Katoomba airfield Nov 2nd and find out :P.

More info in the new thread Mental4astro posted.