I'm impressed too! you will have to donate those eyes to science one day H0ughy
PS I think it has been mentioned here, but if your not aware and it may be obvious , but it helps a lot to block the moon out with a tree or building or something when viewing the comets in these conditions - and beware the moon just gets closer to the comets now till its gone again - go for it! I would be interested in some telescopic view reports now
Fringy, Normally I am as blind as a bat, but this morning was something very special, and probably will never happen again, the moon was easily blocked out. But the sky conditions were supurb. I wished I had the scope setup to do some imaging. The smudges were not very big either, but with the skychart it was easy to identify the comet bits. You are correct the moon will be a problem, then again, it is getting less and less bright.
Fringy, Normally I am as blind as a bat, but this morning was something very special, and probably will never happen again, the moon was easily blocked out. But the sky conditions were supurb. I wished I had the scope setup to do some imaging. The smudges were not very big either, but with the skychart it was easy to identify the comet bits.
Fair enough David, I wasn't there of course, and seeing you have mentioned this observation on an national (and international?) forum with millions of people watching? you must fairly convinced of this
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy
You are correct the moon will be a problem, then again, it is getting less and less bright.
Fair enough David, I wasn't there of course, and seeing you have mentioned this observation on an national (and international?) forum with millions of people watching? you must fairly convinced of this
Sorry I have been away for two weeks and still haven't seen the comet. Just too lazy to wake up at 2am to set up the ETX.
Am I correct in saying that 3:30-4am is about the right time now to observe the comet? i.e. it is getting earlier in the morning?
Also which part of the comet is the most observable i.e. which segment and it's rough magnitude.
They are definitely moving to the east everyday, so closest to local dawn, but still dark is best for catching them at their highest elevation but having said that they do rise at about 2:30 am in the e/n/e.
Fragment B is the brightest of the two bright fragments, I guesstimated fragment B to be in the low 5's of magnitude when i saw it last on tuesday morning and fragment C in the high 5's but smaller, and tail not as bright and big as B.
Come to Sydney! There was a story in the Sydney Morning Herald last week - Sydney Observatory was hosting a public observing session in the pre-dawn.
I've found it fascinating to bump into non-astronomers who know there is a crumbling comet in the sky. It may not be a prominent naked-eye sight, but a certain fraction of the general public are aware of it.
Greg, why? havent you got enough ex south aussies over there yet?
I might of just missed it in the news I guess, certainly wasnt in the newspaper. did they get a good turn out at the observatory for comets?
Anyhoo just got back in from a quick look at the pair with the 20x80 binocs, and this time I printed out a star chart and tried to get a rough estimation of there magnitude, instead of relying on the legions of northern hemisphereans doing all the obs, and they are both dimmer than 6.3 thats for sure, - I may of way over estimated there brightness the other day, although I think B was a lot brighter the other day.
Sorry for the bum steer chrissara, but I also hadnt read/seen any obs for a few days, and doing mag estimates in moonlight is tricky, can underestimate them.
B was dimmer than C, I would put it in the high 6's easy - they have switched around again in that regard.
but B still had the larger outer coma, which was around 15 ghostly arcminutes in dia. and probably had at least .5 deg tail
C had about a quarter of a degree of tail and a smaller but brighter coma.
Moon interfered more with the view on this morning than it did on tuesday morning for me as well.
man that must of been a nice view when B flared middle of last week, lucky people who saw that :-)
Checked out the comet for the first time this morning. Picked it up easily in the 80mm short tube despite the waning gibbious moon and morning twilight.
I also had a look (or tried to look) this morning at about 4:30am. Unfortunately I was relying on my ETX125 Autostar to do the work for me and in all honesty I couldn't say if I was looking at the comet at all. Could someone give some tips or perhaps a nice simple skychart link for a beginner?
Chris sorry to hear you were unsuccessful in locating the comets this morning, were you using low power in the scope?
Seeing there is a lack of wide view simple charts specifically for the southern hemisphere on the net, I have created two for tomorrow (sunday) morning and one for monday morning using SNP.
One tip I would give when not using a goto system, and just doing it the old fashioned starhopping method, is use a pair of binoculars (preferably large for these two) to locate them first before using scope, if possible.
I know not everyone has large binocs lying around, but at the prices they are today, I dont understand how any serious observer cant afford them.
I have been using my andrews 20x80 triplet for these two, and other binocular comets, and I love them. You dont need superb optics binocs to enjoy casual viewing of bright binocular comets I have found, although that would be nice to have. There not much good for anything else tho IMO .
I mean he has 20x80s for 150 bucks!!! omg! thats the price of an eyepiece LOL. anything over 50mm (the more aperture the better - but if you dont have a mount and have to handhold it, dont go too big , 60 - 70mm would be nice as well,) http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-11.htm
Thnaks for the help Fringe_Dweller. I actually after posting pulled up SNP and printed one out for 4:30am, but your advice regarding the binoculars I believe will be the way to go. I was actually using a 25mm Plossl when trying to observe.
I could see various pin pricks of light, but could tell if they were the comet, fragments or stars.
No worries Chris, the old planetarium proggies are a god send arent they!
(I know theres good virtual/java online ones to from memory)
I have to say I am reading some wildly varying estimates on their brightness - some say in the 7's even 8's! some even high 5's still - so all i will say is they are the biggest and best damn 7th/8th magnitude (binocular ) comets I have ever seen, particularly through all that moonlight and LP!
interesting!
I am glad I DID get to see the outburst of Comet Fragment B, as it was quite obviously brighter than Frag. C.
I tried to get up this morning after a long nights observing for a look, but clouds interfered. And mozzies outside the tent were no great inducement either !
Had a quick look at the dynamic duo this morning (monday) frag C looked quite good, considering how close to the 23.7 day old moon it was. some tail bright condensed head. Had very bad problems with internal reflections from the moon in the handheld 20x80's, and fast moving local cloud - so B was a challenge as a result.
Only glimpsed it before clouds ect. won and its outer coma appeared as a very dim but decent sized patch/ball of light, with no tail seen. They are certainly not speccy comets - but there is two of them
neither appeared to be certainly not any brighter than 6th mag, certainly less than that even.
we can only hope for more outbursts Ian - but they dont get much closer to the sun then they already were/are now - its not a particularly close perihelion at .94 AU max on the 6th/7th June.
btw they really have now become equatorial/southern hemisphere favouring objects, dont forget the NH is approaching summer quickly, with the days longer, most of them are looking at it in twighlight now if they want a squiz.
I gathered that they were becoming difficult for our northern cousins, after seeing a few photos on spaceweather.
I had another look this morning (what a glutton )
Fragment B was a little harder to spot, having a more condensed core & a longer thinner tail. C was easily 1/2 a Mag brighter, with a shorter tail & wider coma.
Couldn't help but take a close up look at Ol Luna too, Schroders Valley is an awe inspiring sight at this phase of the moon, looking for all the world like a river delta that has stained the surface of the moon a dark grey.
It's a challenge getting up that bit earlier, but boy is it worth it.
Oh yes, BTW the seeing was excellent
Well I don't know about you folk, but I went out for another look at these comets this morning.
As they now draw further away from us they are (aparently) converging.
I can almost fit them both in a 16x60 binocular field of view.
Still looking good 7 if anything the B component is a little brighter than the last few days.
I am having a public viewing of this pair on Sat morning to Coinside with the new moon, lets hope it is clear skies !
you will have to donate those eyes to science one day H0ughy 
)
