Fairly Bright Comet for November?

[CometGuy]

Comet Watchers should mark early November in their calendar, as Comet C/2007F1 (LONEOS) appears low in west at the end of evening twilight. It passes through the head of Scorpio during the first week of November, although like many comets will be low in the sky and will require a dark sky to be seen to any advantage. The current ephemeris puts the comet around mag 6, but it could easily be 1-2 magnitudes brighter (judging by a recent observations).

Terry

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Terry. It's good to know something is about to happen. Except for the Lunar Eclipse, we've been a bit dry on spectacles lately :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Excellent, thanks Terry! I'll be looking for it!

[Greg Bryant]

Terry,

Yes, today's reported observation of magnitude 9.3 from J. Gonzalez in Spain was a little surprising, given its sluggish performance through winter. It looks like its prospects are improving.

[ballaratdragons]

Hmmm, should be high enough by Snake Valley Camp on 9th - 13th November :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the headsup Terry.
Sounds like it could be a nice little appetiser before the Mars opposition.

[Stevo69]

Here is an ephemeris for c/2007 f1 Loneos which I generated from the JPL site. I use Horizons (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi) often to print off ephemera for the out planets and asteroids. A really handy on-line program.

hoo roo,
Steve

[Liz]

Great news, as missed McNaught, any comet is a good comet ....thanks Terry. Will book some time on SLOOH telescope with those coord Steve, yeh.

[dcnicholls]

A useful place to keep track of C/2007 F1 is at http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007F1/2007F1.html

Seiichi Yoshida has it peaking around mag 4.

DN

[iceman]

Mag 4! Naked eye would be great, although low in the west it would need to be brighter than that to be naked eye, I imagine.

[Stevo69]

Here is my previous PDF file in MS Word format 2000/XP. It might be a bit more user-friendly for most. And I've updated it with latest mag and co-ordinates. Will anyone attempt to catch it in these early days at mag 9-10??

[CoombellKid]

Cool sounds like a job for the 20x80's I should have the parrallelogram
mount built by then.

thanks for the head up

regards,CS

[Ric]

Thanks Terry for the heads up, from the info here it could be a interesting comet.

I shall keep an eye out for that one.

[glenc]

The attached file shows the comet's altitude above the horizon every 2 days from 26/10 to 25/11. The star background is not correct. The Sun (yellow circle) is just setting at 6pm on 26/10 and the comet is mag 5.4 when the track starts. Thanks to SkyMapPro.

[astroron]

Unless it is very bright it may be difficult to see, as it is low down and in twilight

[Outbackmanyep]

Looks like i have to make another trip to "comet hill" where i saw McNaught earlier in the year!
Yahoo comet groups will keep me informed of up-to-date changes!

[CometGuy]

This is starting to get interesting, veteran comet observer Reinder Bouma observed the comet on October 2 at magnitude 7.6. Although its hard to gauge how much effect low altitude is having on the comets percieved brightening, at this rate it could be as bright as mag 3.5 in early November. A noticeable tail has also developed and this should develop a lot further as it continues to near the sun (0.4 AU on October 28). I could see this comet becoming similar to Comet Ikeya-Zhang in 2002, fingers crossed!

Terry

[CometGuy]

Just saw another observation by another experienced comet observer - mag 7.2 on October 4. Comet is going great guns :)

Terry

[h0ughy]

are there any images of this yet?

[Liz]

Thanks Terry, sound great.
Houghy, there are some pics on spaceweather.com for the 2/10 I think, and also this website
http://www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky%20Events%20Now.html of a pic taken this am in N. Ireland.

[h0ughy]

thanks Liz

[CometGuy]

The best ones I've seen are being posted by Michael jaeger on the Comet-Images group, but I think you have to join the group to see the images:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Comet-Images/

Nothing too exciting yet, just a thin faint ion tail.

Terry

[Outbackmanyep]

Yeah i just seen some images on Seiichi Yoshida's homepage

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

As much as we'd like rain out here i hope it stays clear for this comet!

Cheers!
PS....congrats on your asteroid naming Terry!

[Outbackmanyep]

I have a report that F1 LONEOS may brighten by half a mag due to forward scattering, so it could theoretically reach mag +3.0

Looking good!

[maksutover]

COOL! ive been praying for another comet!

[Outbackmanyep]

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2007+F1+&orb=1

That link should give you a taste!
Cheers!

[CometGuy]

Some nice photos:

http://kometen.fg-vds.de/pix/2007F1.htm

Love this one:

http://kometen.fg-vds.de/pix/2007F1/2007F1_08102007.htm

Tail development is looking promising, should be quite a sight in binoculars come November.

Terry

[Outbackmanyep]

And quite easy to find too Terry.......i have already printed my finder charts out, i need to make it back to "McNaught Hill" where i saw P1 from and give it a go on the 3rd of Nov and onwards!