deep Comet Lovejoy with Berts lens

[tornado33]

Hi
This morning I used Berts 300mm f2.8 flourite lens with the baader uhcs filter on Comet Lovejoy.
9x5 mins ISO 400, UHCS filter installed in back of lens, Hutech modded 350D. Hand guided on stars then aligned on comet for stacking. Comet is slightly trailed as even in 5 mins it moves. Its picking up speed and moving rapidly north now.
2nd image is a full res crop.
As usual the magnificent lens gave sharp star images @f2.8 to the very corners of the frames.
I started just after Moonset.
Scott

[John K]

Sweet image,really starting to look like a dirty snowball.

Has an ephemeris been determined with a magnitude estimate at closest approach to earth yet?

[Rob_K]

Great shot Scott! Bit of variation in ephemerides for Lovejoy, John, depending where you look. These are some estimates (full ephemerides if you follow links):

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2007E2_1.html (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2007E2_1.html) :
2007 04 17 8.6
2007 04 18 8.5
2007 04 19 8.5
2007 04 20 8.5
2007 04 21 8.5
2007 04 22 8.5
2007 04 23 8.5
2007 04 24 8.5
2007 04 25 8.5
2007 04 26 8.5
2007 04 27 8.5
2007 04 28 8.6

http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~comet/eph/2007e2.html (http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~comet/eph/2007e2.html) :
2007/04/17 7.6
2007/04/18 7.5
2007/04/19 7.5
2007/04/20 7.5
2007/04/21 7.5

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/07e2.uk (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/07e2.uk) :
April:
16/17 7.6
17/18 7.5
18/19 7.5
19/20 7.5
20/21 7.5
21/22 7.4
22/23 7.4
23/24 7.5
24/25 7.5
25/26 7.5
26/27 7.5
27/28 7.6

Also chart below.

Cheers -

[CometGuy]

Scott,

Thanks for posting. Good to catch up with what the comet is doing as I have been away this week due to work.

John, it should reach magnitude 7 or so during the later part of April.

Terry

[tornado33]

Thanks
Yes Im thinking we might see a tail when at perihelion, when its just over 1 au from the sun. It seems to be sticking to the brightness curve http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007E2/2007E2.html
I remember just before Hyakutake got to 1 au it developed a gas tail, perhaps Comet Lovejoy will do the same.
Nice discovery Terry!

[h0ughy]

Nice shot Mr Alder. Moon will kill it off for the next few nights - pity

[John K]

Fantastic! Perfect for imaging next new moon dark sky trip.