Check out 88P/ Howell tonight!

[Outbackmanyep]

Hi all!
Just a message to let you know that if you want to see a moderately faint comet then 88P is an easy one to find tonight as it is right next to Nunki (sigma sagittarii).....easy as....:thumbsup:

[peterl]

CLOUD COMING.
Hi outbackman,
I read you thread and walked outside to check the sky and guess what!
slight cloud cover overhead and big bank of cloud coming up from newcastle with lightning..... :(
Is this comet in the sky for long?
maybe a view another night.
Peter Langdown
peter L

[pgc hunter]

NSW is kind enough to share their famous scudfests with us tonight so no dice :(

[Robert9]

'Twas all set up, waiting for darkness to fall. Jupiter already clearly visible. Then in rolled the cloud.:sadeyes:

[Outbackmanyep]

Bugger!

88P/ Howell will be around for a while yet, even though it's still around mag 9-10 it should still be easily visible, you will need to generate a chart for it for the next few weeks or go to http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/
you will find a chart there!

Its not displaying a tail and its quite a round fuzzy thing, so keep a good eye out for it!

Cheers!

[CometGuy]

Outback..It was also near a fairly bright asteroid, 498 Tokio. Here is an image from Nov 11 showing Nunki (at top), 88p (Arrowed) and 498 Tokio (arrowed). The image was made a part of my comet hunting work consists of 3 60 second exposures made 8 minutes apart - so both the comet and asteroid appear as trails.

[Outbackmanyep]

Nice stuff Terry! :thumbsup:

Hows the comet hunting going?

I am heading out to do an asteroid occultation tonight at Boggabri, i might check out Tokio if i have time, and weather pending!
Keep the good work, and i hope that you'll be at NACAA next Easter!

Cheers!:D

[CometGuy]

Its going well Outback, we'll it be better if I actually found something!

Its been 2.5 years now since my last one and have stepped it up a little as well. With a GOTO mount and cooled CCD I'm covering a lot more sky in one night than I was in 2007. Anyway comets that amateurs can discover are few and far between, so its just a matter of being patient. Next week I should be recieving a hyperstar which will convert my C8 into a fast wide angle scope which should step things up yet another notch. I hope to cover a lot of sky down to mag 18 or so - I hope to find at least one comet a year :)

Interesting, I see some of the new professional surveys are coming up against problems. The Pan starrs project which has the 1.4 Gigapixel camera in Hawaii is having teething problems, apparently 15% of the sensor area is dead and its too expensive to replace!

Terry