A new comet

33South (Chris) · #1 10-01-2006, 02:39 PM

Just came across this on a yahoo group -

>A new comet found by the ASAS team with their Chile Observatory.
>Might be a nice one for Binocs or maybe better.
http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/~gp/asas/asas_c2006.html

Robert_T · #2 10-01-2006, 03:24 PM

that'd be nice, it's been something of a cometary drought for quite a while now

ving (David) · #3 10-01-2006, 03:25 PM

an estimated mag 7.8 in feb. I'll have to hunt it down

davidpretorius · #4 10-01-2006, 04:16 PM

i am getting confused trying to track it down. ra.dec and then alt/az

in what constellation are we looking.

i would love to see a comet!

fringe_dweller · #5 10-01-2006, 05:55 PM

Ving, it may get as bright as mag 6+ ish in the morning sky in feb - who knows? comets are famous for being erratic - both ways. Moons gonna be a bit of a pain as usual anyway during best times maybe.
who's complaining about a comet drought? lol - we just had the bumper year in 2004 many records broken for me - i saw 4 different naked eye comets in one calendar year - and two different, simultaneous pairs of ne comets (dark sky) in one calendar year (same 4 comets) - amazing!! that hadnt been done for 50 years or so

try Michael Mattiazzo's site http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/ with charts and updates
yes comets are bit more of a challenge without goto than planets ect. arent they - hit that dim diffuse moving target

anyone widefield image the SMC and surrounds early dec? you may have a predicovery image of the Pojmanski - if your image goes deep enough that is, maybe 15-16th magish? - it went within a few degrees of the cloud. you would have to stretch contrast and enhance to hell tho i guess
Dave here's a sceenshot from SN of the view from adders at 11:30 pm (DST)
anyway good excuse to crack out the 25x100's and the 20x80's :-))))

Dave47tuc (David) · #6 10-01-2006, 06:29 PM

If you have Cartes du Ciel, under file menu run the online resources, then click on Comet elements. Click ok and do a update.
Make sure you save options in the preferences menu.
Go to the catalog and object parameters. and select comet 2006 A1.
You will have your finder chart.

Hope it becomes a good one.

davidpretorius · #7 10-01-2006, 06:36 PM

thanks guys.

happy one year anniversary on IIS dave!!!

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #8 10-01-2006, 06:40 PM

might give the new scope mount a go with this one, unless I have an eq6 by then, which I doubt lol. be interesting to see the drift correction working

davidpretorius · #9 10-01-2006, 06:41 PM

can we see it at the moment in my 10"?

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #10 10-01-2006, 06:56 PM

Should be Mag 11.1 so should be able to see it under dark skies, would look like a faint star with a little haze around it. If you have a finder chart of the area and can starhop you should be able to find it with some luck

Stu · #11 10-01-2006, 06:59 PM

Might be a good year. Can't wait for Swass-Watchmann 3 in june.

gaa_ian (Ian) · #12 10-01-2006, 10:37 PM

Could be a good one, If we get a clear night I will go looking for it !
I will never forget the Comets of 2004.
At one stage you could see one of them moving (slowly) across the background stars when watching for 5 mins or so in the northern sky

gaa_ian (Ian) · #13 12-01-2006, 11:24 PM

OK .... we have a new Comet here, has anyone seen it yet

One of the keen astrophotographers must be able to get a snapshot of it, from somewhere

All I can see is the bottom of the clouds

davidpretorius · #14 12-01-2006, 11:32 PM

i am keen tonight, no clouds, but a rather bright moon may cause issues!!!

gaa_ian (Ian) · #15 12-01-2006, 11:43 PM

Ahh yes ...the moon !
I am even hard pressed to see that through the clouds.
We have a developing monsoon trough here

Might be time to order and fit that Crayford focuser I have been promising myself !

Glenn Dawes · #16 14-01-2006, 06:14 PM

Hi guys,

I've been having a look at the orbit of this comet it is very interesting.
It has a very high inclination ie. its orbit is close to 90° to the ecliptic and coming out of the deep south.

At the moment it is very low in the southern sky but moves quickly into the late morning sky where it stays until after its perihelion which happens on Feb 22 - when it is brightest (and works out well for anyone thinking of going to Kulnura on the New Moon Saturday in Feb (25th). Also at this time its phase angle is good (90°), so if there is a tail the Earth is in a good position for us to observe it. By late March it will be unobservable having moved into the daytime sky and then below the northern horizon for mid lattitude Aussie observers.

The attached ephemeris includes the magnitude, hours rising before the Sun and the constellation it is in. Don't be too concerned about the magnitude. This shows a magnitude of 10 when brightest. If it is a first time visitor to the Solar System it could easily be a couple of magnitudes brighter.

Happy observing.

Glenn D

avandonk · #17 15-01-2006, 01:20 PM

I have quite a few pics of SMC in early December is there a plot of this comets position available as it would make it easier to find if present.

Thanks Bert

fringe_dweller · #18 15-01-2006, 03:05 PM

Hi Bert, actually it was more late nov than early dec

sorry!
here is som co-ordinates i generated using jpl's horizon http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph

*********************************** *********************************** *********
Date_(ZONE)_HR:MN R.A.__(a-apparent)__DEC T-mag N-mag Cnst
*********************************** ******************************
2005-Nov-15 00:00 m 03 03 20.51 -70 59 11.2 17.05 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-16 00:00 m 02 57 26.51 -71 26 30.8 17.01 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-17 00:00 m 02 51 14.90 -71 52 41.9 16.97 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-18 00:00 m 02 44 45.49 -72 17 40.6 16.93 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-19 00:00 02 37 58.22 -72 41 23.3 16.90 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-20 00:00 02 30 53.18 -73 03 46.4 16.86 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-21 00:00 02 23 30.67 -73 24 46.0 16.82 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-22 00:00 02 15 51.15 -73 44 18.9 16.78 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-23 00:00 02 07 55.33 -74 02 21.8 16.74 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-24 00:00 01 59 44.15 -74 18 51.5 16.70 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-25 00:00 01 51 18.80 -74 33 45.5 16.66 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-26 00:00 01 42 40.70 -74 47 01.3 16.62 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-27 00:00 01 33 51.50 -74 58 37.2 16.58 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-28 00:00 01 24 53.09 -75 08 31.7 16.54 n.a. Hyi
2005-Nov-29 00:00 01 15 47.52 -75 16 44.2 16.50 n.a. Tuc
2005-Nov-30 00:00 01 06 37.01 -75 23 14.3 16.46 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-01 00:00 00 57 23.86 -75 28 02.7 16.42 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-02 00:00 00 48 10.42 -75 31 10.2 16.38 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-03 00:00 00 38 59.02 -75 32 38.7 16.34 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-04 00:00 00 29 51.94 -75 32 30.5 16.29 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-05 00:00 m 00 20 51.33 -75 30 48.4 16.25 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-06 00:00 m 00 11 59.16 -75 27 35.8 16.21 n.a. Hyi
2005-Dec-07 00:00 m 00 03 17.21 -75 22 56.3 16.16 n.a. Oct
2005-Dec-08 00:00 m 23 54 47.03 -75 16 54.1 16.12 n.a. Oct
2005-Dec-09 00:00 m 23 46 29.93 -75 09 33.3 16.07 n.a. Oct

this was for adelaide at 12:00 UT (i thought it was hmmm? says 00:00) daily increments - shouldnt matter

here is a quick crappy quictime movie i just made using SN covering dates 26th nov to 4th dec - each frame represents a day kinda

gives a rough idea
http://southern-x.org/so_x/c2006a1.mov

ps nice ephemeris Glenn thankyou! will come in handy - hopefully its sooo bright wont need one hehe

avandonk · #19 15-01-2006, 03:08 PM

I also have some late Nov. Thanks, Will make the search far easier.

Bert

Glenn Dawes · #20 04-02-2006, 11:06 PM

Hi Guys,

fyi, there have been reports of this comet now being visible in small binoculars. It is mainly a coma (4' in dia) with no sign of a tail. It has been described and disc-like or stellar in appearence (depending on the magnification of your binocs).

It will be well placed in the morning sky through much of February.

Regards

Glenn D