Comet 2007 E2 (Lovejoy)

[ian musgrave]

Congratulation to Terry Lovejoy on discovering Comet 2007 E2 in Indus. The comet was the first to be discovered by digital camera. You can see Terry's images of the comet at http://www.pbase.com/terrylovejoy/c2007e2 . I've made a spotters guide for the comet (see thumbnail). The comet is currently around magnitude 9.5, and may brighten to as mauch as mag 7 by mid april. The comet is located approximately RA 20h 42m 55s, DEC -50deg 43' 14" Cheers! Ian

[ian musgrave]

An ephemeris is now available at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/NEO/ToConfirm.html

[erick]

So that's confirmed? Double congratulations to Terry - his first comet and the first using a digital camera! Aussie hero!!:clap:

[Ric]

That's great news that it's expected to brighten, I'll be looking forward to grabbing some images.


Cheers

[ian musgrave]

Yep, it's confirmed. There is now orbital elements on the MPEC (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K07/K07F32.html) from 36 observations. I've attached a high resolution map showing stars to magnitude 9.5 and a 10x 50 binocular circle for the bnext few days. The comet starts out around 2 deg from alpah indus, and comes close to it over the next 4 days. A peak magnitude of 7 is still predicted, but uncertanty is still high.

Cheres! Ian

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Ian that's a great map image - I managed to observe the comet around 3am (Qld time) yesterday Mon the 19th, and I have to say if I'd had your skyview image to guide me it would have been even easier.

Having said that it really is worth everyone trying to have a look - the only difficult part is that you have to stay up pretty late or get up very early to see it, but once you're there it is easy to find. I was viewing at 88x using a 17mm 68 degree ep, and it was large and bright (comparitively - you know what I mean) in the fov, ie it was immediately visible the minute it entered my field of view.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else Comet Lovejoy may bring over the next few weeks.

[glenc]

Here is a map from SkyMapPro for 4am AEST. It is correct for RA and dec but not for altitude.

[netwolf]

How to I go about manually adding this to CDC? Updates not available for this yet.

Regards
Fahim

[avandonk]

Here is an all sky map for about 4AM for the next month. It is for Melbourne's latitude but being all sky it should be obvious where it is for any other latitude.

Bert

[huckabuck]

congrats terry. can't wait for it to climb north

[iceman]

What time of day is it visible at the moment? When does it rise and when is the best time to view?

I'm going out observing tonight and will take a look once the moon sets.

[[1ponders]]

I think you will find it is early morning Mike. Have a look for it next time you are having a shot at Jupiter.

Here's a table of RA and Dec coordinates from the nasa/jpl generated ephemeris for the next month or so.

[glenc]

Mike this map is for Sydney at 5am DST tomorrow. Lovejoy rises at 0:24am and transits at 9:25am for Sydney. It is next to alpha Ind.

[iceman]

Anyone keen to post an updated map?

Thanks

[glenc]

Mike see post #7 below for a map to 16/4. Let me know if you want more detail. Comet Lovejoy will be next to kappa2 Sgr tomorrow morning.

[gaa_ian]

Well ... I had a look for the venerable Mr Lovejoys Comet this morning :)
I think I found it in the spot indicated on the maps, tucked away below "The Teapot" (Sag.)
It appeared to almost form a Parallelogram with 3 other bright field stars ?
It was either the comet or an unresolvable DSO ?
Unfortunately my Starry night Pro, does not seem to have picked up Comet Lovejoy in its updates :shrug: (I am not the first to experience this starry night problem from memory)

[glenc]

Sounds like it Ian. It looks like a moderately bright globular cluster in my 12".
Here is a SkyMapPro map for 1/4 to 15/4 at 4am. It will be 5 degrees below M55 on 8/4 and 9/4.

[gaa_ian]

Thanks Glen, I am pretty sure i have nailed it too.
There is nothing like a sweep with a low powered EP to find comets & DSO's.
In this case there are no bright DSO's in the region I was looking. Therefore it must have been Comet Lovejoy :thumbsup:

[meade expert]

Hi All

Took this image this morning at 4.45am using Nikon D70 Ed lens set at 70mm piggybacked on a classic 10 inch lx200.
3 mins at 800 iso with some moderate light pollution at Jerrara Dam.
This image is an enlarged section of the original shot.

[glenc]

I saw Comet Lovejoy in Aql this morning with 20x80 binoculars. It was easy to see (mag 7.5) but I could not detect a tail. The attached map from SkyMapPro shows its path over the next 10 days at 4am. The map also shows Altair and Vega.

[ballaratdragons]

Eric (Erick) and I spent considerable time Friday night (sat morning 2 - 3am) trying to find Comet Lovejoy using the information supplied in here, with no luck. We even scanned the wider areas of the whole of Aquila, lower Sagittarius and surrounds. :shrug:

We located the exact spot it was meant to be on the 20th, with 8" and 12" dobs, and several sizes of binocs. Seeing was 8-9/10, transparency was 9-10/10, light pollution 0/10, so there's no reason why we couldn't see it. We even triple and quadruple checked the star maps!

[erick]

'Twas disappointing. We couldn't work out why we couldn't locate it?? :confuse2:

[Rob_K]

Don't know guys. I saw it on the night of 13/14 April and it was exactly where Starry Night plotted it to be. Very dim in my scope, a lot dimmer than I thought it would be, but I was excited just to get a visual on it. Didn't McNaught spoil us?

Cheers -

[glenc]

Here is the RA and dec at 4am AEST from Guide 8.0.
Comet Lovejoy is heading north and will only be visible for a couple of weeks more.
Delta is the distance from earth in au.

[erick]

Thanks Glen, I'll try again. :)

[ian musgrave]

Comet Lovejoy will be at its brightest over the next few days (but not very bright, around mag 7.5). I have some high resolution charts here
http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2007/04/comet-e2-lovejoy-at-its-brightest-this.htm (http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2007/04/comet-e2-lovejoy-at-its-brightest-this.html)l
to help people catch it as it speeds through Aquilla. It will only be a fuzzy dot though. Right now it is close to Zeta Aquilae, so it should be esy to catch.

Cheers! Ian

[glenc]

Found Comet Lovejoy with 20x80 binos and looked at it with my 10" dob this morning, it was about 10 degrees above Vega at 4am . It was also visible in my 50mm finder. I could see it moving, using the 10", over a period of about 30 mins but I could not detect a tail. It will be 7.5 degrees from Vega tomorrow.

[glenc]

Looked at Terry's comet with my 12" dob this morning at 115x. It was extended on one side (SW) but I couldn't really see a tail. It was also visible in my 50mm finder. The moon will be a problem for the next week or so.