mag5 comet

[Merlin66]

Should be easily visible in Binos....
46p/Wirtanen

[RichardJ]

Observed the comet last night with my 10 x 50mm binoculars at home in Carlingford. Was over head at about 10.30pm. Large and diffuse, very nebulous. No tail. My guess at magnitude would be around 7. Hoping to get a better view under a dark sky this weekend.

RichardJ :)

[Merlin66]

Richard,
Well done!
Glad to hear someone has had success....
The weather down here has been absolutely terrible.....

[gaa_ian]

In between all the haze up here I was able to spot the comet last night .
Big fuzzball in 12x40 IS Binoculars!

[Saturnine]

Just observed 46P earlier tonight from our semi dark site, about 5.5 visual mag. Thought I could just make it out naked eye and a fellow member said the same Through 9 X 60 binos it was an easy catch and at a rough guess appeared about a 1 deg. coma. Hope to get some images from an dark site on Monday evening.

[RichardJ]

Observed the comet last night and showed a number of people through my 102mm refractor and the Society’s 16 inch scope at our regular observing session at Crago. Easy to see in 10 x 50mm binoculars. I thought it was about mag 5.5 or 6. Will be interesting to see how bright it gets.

RichardJ :)

[Merlin66]

Thunder, Lighting, cloud and rain down here last night................

[Zubenel]

We observed 46P from Cambroon Observatory lst night through "Zamar". 35MM Pan giving 72 x mag and a FOV of 0.96 degrees. Comet 46P was contained in the FOV. It had a very tight and bright coma diffusing to an outer halo of about 30 arc minutes. A tail was evident by way of a significant assymentry with the outer halo being almost non existant to one side..
Easily visable in the 10 x 50 finder . Naked eye showed a very dim nebulous haze around Mag 6 would be my guess.

[DeWynter]

Observed 46P/Wirtanen last Saturday from Crowdy Bay Nat Park around 9:30pm with 16x50 binos. It was almost overhead at that time. I knew there would be no tail at this stage, but I was surprised not to find the core. It was more like a globular cluster - quite large and fuzzy ball. Very easy to spot. At the moment I wasn't sure if it's the comet, but then I double and triple checked location with the map etc. Definitely the comet.

[Lee]

We observed 46p with the ED80 tonight from Newcastle (not a dark site).
I thought it would be a change to go visual rather than open up the observatory, so the kids were allowed to stay up for it. The ED80 has no actual finder, just a Telrad, so it was star hopping all the way from Menkar. After a fruitless half hour I realised I had left the crappy Series 500 Plossl in the scope (it only serves as a dust cap these days), so was trying to star hop with a 15mm EP. Popping in a 32mm Televue Plossl and we were soon on top of it - not as bright as I was expecting, and I couldn't see the core, just a very faint fuzz. The kids could see it better than I could I think! My 9 year old preferred the view through the CCD/computer...

[Saturnine]

Observed and imaged 46P last night from a darkish site near Jamberoo, very windy at times with strong gusts. Had to delete about 20% of subs because of wind shake. Not sure about resolving the nucleus in the 9 X 60 binos but the coma is large and fuzzy. Haven't processed the images yet but in 90 & 120 sec subs, was sure that I could make out the ion tail.
Could also notice the comet moving , relative to the background stars, from the early subs to the later ones, over about a 2 hour period between 11:00pm and 1:00am.

[Multiverse]

Looks like you had at least some success Jeff, wish I could have come along. Looking forward to see your processed images.

[Suzy]

These are great reports you guys, especially Wes', such great info, thanks!
I've been trying every night this week to observe it but cloud just won't budge :sadeyes:.

The size (as seen from Earth that is), is now reported to be larger than the Full Moon. I've come across a couple of astrophotographers scratching their heads over the constant appearance and disappearance of the ion tail in a short period with their pics. Drama Queen..... :rolleyes::lol:.

Now reported at mag. +5.

[Lognic04]

I observed it last night, about 1 degree and visible to the naked eye!
In any scope it showed a bright core, tiny tail and large coma.
It kind of looked like a dim 47 tuc!

[bojan]

Tried last night from Mt Waverley, LP is terrible.
It was barely visible in binoculars (7x50)... If I didn't know where to look, I wouln't spot it at all.

[Merlin66]

Latest finder chart......

[bigjoe]

Ken and all..should be a reasonable night here in Sydney..The Comet , Mars and Neptune within a degree of each other (for a few nights) and lovely M77 and Gamma Ceti not far from the comet!
bigjoe.

[N1]

Observed 46P last night from Beverly Begg Obs in Dunedin City. Not a naked eye object from there but the view was surprisingly good in 15x70 binoculars, 5" refractor and 13" reflector, each showing different aspects of it, and each equally good. No tail discernible, but a reasonably well defined core in the 5" and 13". Context view provided by the binoculars really showed (in a way the other scopes could not) how big this object is. Powers used were 15x - 50x approx, AFOV around the 50° mark, so at the higher powers the comet filled the field of view.

[Kunama]

Observed it from Mt Stromlo Observatory last night in the 18".
Widest field I could get is 1º. Much better this week, should be 'great' by the time it gets close to Pleiades and brightens a bit more.....

Taking the Binoscope up tonight for wider field.......

[Tinderboxsky]

I had good views of 46P on Wednesday evening from here at Tinderbox. I think I liked the binocular view the most - only 6.5X magnification but sharp 9deg true FOV which certainly confirmed it’s large size and gave it context amongst the interesting star field.
Spent some time closer up with a telescope. It is certainly moving quickly. I could detect a slight change in position between 45 minute observations.

[bigjoe]

Moving FAST alright; COMET'S
Positions in attachment
bigjoe.

[Greggles]

Hi every one,

Any tips on observing the comet? I was searching for about 2 hours last night before I gave up.

According to its location on stellarium I was looking in the right place and it should of been in my FOV but couldn't identify it (or at least couldn't distinguish between it and a star) The location on stellarium seemed to slightly differ from one of the online sources, has any one else had this issue?

My equipment and location may also be the reason why I cant see it. I am looking through a cheap 76/700 in light polluted sydney skys. I thought it still be identifiable though?

Thanks for your help,

Greg

[Lee]

I had trouble earlier in the week with an ED80 in the Newcastle suburbs, I suspect light pollution had something to do with it, it was very faint, I suspect any more background light and we wouldn't have been able to catch it.

[DeWynter]

I observed the comet on 1/12 from a very dark site (pitch black, very far from any light pollution) and I was able to find it quite easily in less than a minute - big, contrast fuzzy ball. Yesterday I observed it from Terrey Hills and it was extremely difficult to find it. It was very-very faint. And I spent good 15 mins trying to locate it. So dark skies are the key!

[Suzy]

I finally got a patch of clear sky in Brisbane last night.
10x60 binos used from suburbia. Still no luck seeing it despite knowing exactly where to look. I'm not surprised being mag +5 with looking north over the city lights.

I was hoping to catch it in binos before observing with my 10" scope, but cloud spread. I've seen quite a few mag +6 comets through my scope from my location and they're an easy catch, still managing to look great from light pollution. I'm back to a blanket of white sky today again grrr.

[Bendy]

Hi Greg,

I tried using Stellarium to find the comet last night and struggled for quite a while. In the end I found a finder chart from Cometwatch, which showed the comet in a slightly different spot and found it almost straight away - perhaps I/we are using older versions of Stellarium??

The chart I used with success last night can be found here:

http://www.cometwatch.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/46p3.jpg

Ben

[Merlin66]

You can update the comet data in CdC and show all the latest comets ;)

[Greggles]

Thanks Bendy,

Now just need a clear night! :D

Gregory

[Nab]

Spotted easily from the outskirts of Ballarat tonight through my 10x50s. About 5.5 degrees from Menkab as expected. A large diffuse coma standing out against the background. I think it was just on the verge of naked eye visibility. Glad that I have seen it since cloud is the norm here at the moment.

Cheers
Darren.

[redbeard]

Cheers all, for the maps, I used this one too and saw it in binos.
A bit to the right and up a bit from that orangey star Menkar made it easy.
:thumbsup: :)

[Sconesbie]

I thought I saw it last night but thinking now I didn't. I used 10x25 binoculars.

I looked at the orange star in Taurus (don't know the name) then approx 11:00 from there I saw something move. It tracked approx north west slowly but very faint. It wasn't green. It wasn't a star and moved too slow for meteor?

[Tinderboxsky]

I had an excellent view last night through 6.5X32 bins. It was a very large and very obvious fuzzy patch with slight brightening towards the centre. Definitely much larger than the full Moon and no tail.
So, you should be able to see it with your bins as long as you are not swamped by light pollution. I don’t think you were seeing it given your description.

[The_bluester]

I had a nice view last night through binos just after dark, very easy to spot from the position given in Stellarium as it was nicely contained in an easy to identify asterism.

No tail as such but I would have said that the fuzzy patch was biased to one side, assuming the tail direction in the image Joe put up a few posts up the page is correct that is where I would have said the visible fuzz was biased toward.

Hoping for some more clear nights so I can show my young'un

[Merlin66]

Ignore the tail....
This is what CdC shows at the moment.

[MortonH]

Here's why it's even more of a Christmas comet in the Northern hemisphere:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=149947

[The_bluester]

Well, not a lot of chance to show it to the young bloke since I saw it in the binos.

Not complaining, we would probably have had to buy in drinking water next week and the rain yesterday put that a couple of weeks down the track, another 100mm evenly spread over a few days would be nice!

[NorthernLight]

We tried to find it last night from suburban Auckland (Bortel 8). I could make it out with 8x40 binoculars but only because I knew exactly where it was and by moving the binos around to spot it with averted vision. Couldn’t find it with the scope finder and gave up after an hour. In hindsight I should have stood up the big rig and used plate solving to find it. That way I could have taken a photo. This one is definitely a hard to find comet in light pollution. Today it’s raining of course....