C/2011 l4

[OzStarGazer]

Is any particular equipment/filter necessary/recommendable to view comets? For example the C/2011 L4 (or any other comet)? Thanks!

[astroron]

Comets come in all forms of brightness, some reaching naked eye visibility so no equipment necessary. but a good pair of binoculars will enhance that view.
fainter comets below naked eye will require a telescope or binoculars too be seen.
There is a filter that can be used to enhance the view of the tail but are not often used as they have limited use.
A camera can be used for all forms of comet observations attached too a telescope or just on a tripod and taken in widefield if bright enough .
Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs is very faint at around 15 mag and would only be seen with a large scope of around of about 25",but would be visible in images.
Rising at around 04:06 and setting at 14:12 is a day time object for us here in Australia.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[OzStarGazer]

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Comets, my favourite subject. :)

As well as the above mentioned, you need a good resource to keep you up to date with what comets are up there. I like this Skyhound's comet chasing page http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/ and for a quick check I use the BAA comet section http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/ There's also a Facebook comet watch page if you're into Facebook. It's usually a good idea to check the above pages every week or 2 to see what's happening, if they have an outburst etc.

One other thing I find very handy is to load comet orbital elements into Stellarium. This has to be done on a regular basis also as it doesn't do it automatically. The great thing about this is that you can use the advance time feature to track the path of the comet as it moves through the sky from night to night.

A tip, for newbies (and me) comet magnitudes on paper "seem" brighter than they actually are. Unless you're very keen, double figure magnitude comets are mostly very dim. Comet magnitudes are taken from the total "fuzzball" so even a large magnitude 7 comet can look quite faint still. But once you catch one, they can be addictive!

[OzStarGazer]

Thank you. cometcatcher/Kevin! :thumbsup:
You know, yesterday I looked at comets in Starry Night (which is similar to Stellarium) and was really amazed at how many comets there were right here! Unfortunately as you say in reality many are very dim (to be visible with naked eye or even a small telescope like mine), but it was still an amazing discovery for me. :)