C/2008 J2 (Beshore) may become a fine binocular comet

[Ian Robinson]

BAA Comet Section report this one may be worth watching.

MPEC 2008-J50:
.Ephemeris for anyone who is interested : http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephem.../2008J2_1.html

[Outbackmanyep]

Cheers Ian!
Looks the goods! I will have to try and make obs when its able to be viewed with my 10" f/5 scope!
Cheers!

[Rob_K]

I'm a little confused here guys (not unusual, LOL). I've seen the BAA Comet Section stuff saying it will be a binocular object in the southern hem but dimmed to mag 10 by the time Britishers see it, yet the MPC ephemeris shows it as pretty faint and getting fainter. There's no way you could regard mag 13.7 as a fine binocular object.

Was there an earlier ephemeris with brighter predictions? Or are there new obs which indicate rapid brightening for this comet?

Cheers -

[Ian Robinson]

I was going on what I read on their comet section pages when I posted .

They may have updated since.

My 10" is in pieces at the moment , and it's been hopeless viewing conditions here the last couple of weeks so I haven't looked at or for it.

[ngcles]

Hi All,

It seems that continued observations of this one has had a significant effect on the predicted orbit. It turns out that this little beast is _not_ on a parabolic orbit at all and is instead part of the Jupiter family of comets with a perihelion out past Mars and a period of 6.29 yrs.

Revised orbital elements are here:

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu:80/mpec/K08/K08J68.html

Rather than perihelion occurring in months to come, it has already happened -- back in late April.

Up-shot is, its basically nothing to get excited about -- unfortunately.

Best,


Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[Rob_K]

Ahh, thanks Les! I had done a bit of chasing that indicated a preliminary ephemeris had predicted mag 8.5 in October. Obviously this had been revised, but it is great to have the reason explained!

Cheers -

[citivolus (Ric)]

Here is a useful page:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2008J2/2008J2.html

[Ian Robinson]

Excellent site : drilling back up a little .... even more useful is http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-s.html

Maybe it should become a sticky ... ??

[citivolus (Ric)]

Yes, I somehow missed that C/2007 W1 was going to make naked eye status and be well placed for us for perihelion. I guess I've been too busy with work. Anyway, I can see some piggyback work coming up

[Outbackmanyep]

Ah ok then Les!
It's still within reach of a 10" dob though! hehe