Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

I promise this is the last time I will mention newly CCD discovered, very faint mag 20 ish components I have read of on comet lists, but the tally has reached 13 now.

...I lied ( so sue me ) fragents u, v, w, x, and y. now added taking it to 18 components I think, and fragment 'B' reported to have brightened in sort of outburst (in low 10's) as of april 1st - did you guys notice that at SPSP?
another nice capture Kevin - please keep them comin

[h0ughy (David)]

my effort, single shot taken saturday night at SPSP unguided an in strong buffetting wind better than nothing

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

It's a good shot Houghy.

Stormy weather has set in and forecast to continue for a few days so probably won't get a chance for more piccies until the next moonless window for me.

[xstream (John)]

That's come out well considering the conditions Dave.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by xstream

That's come out well considering the conditions Dave.

thanks, I will try the other images later and stack them

[Greg Bryant]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

...fragment 'B' reported to have brightened in sort of outburst (in low 10's) as of april 1st - did you guys notice that at SPSP?
another nice capture Kevin - please keep them comin

Hi Kearn,

I and a long line-up of people observed Fragment "C" late in the evening on Saturday April 1st. Given the low altitude of Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (less than 15 degrees, and we were observing kneeling down on the ground looking through a 20 inch Dob), we didn't look for other fragments.

Cheers,

[fringe_dweller]

H0ughy, nice job comet looks like she is coming along nicely

Hi Greg,
ahh!, thanks, I thought that may be the case, I must of been thinking of Kevin's view up there in Mackay

cheers

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Plenty high enough in the sky here.

[h0ughy (David)]

Ok so shoot me mr fringe_dweller, I forgot to take some darks. Here is a stack of 11 shots taken around midnight on Saturday 1 april. and were around 20 -30 seconds. Stacked and botched in IP2.75.

[xstream (John)]

Just what it looked like through the eyepiece Dave, except for the noise.

[fringe_dweller]

WHAT NO DARKFRAME!! *FUME* ahha, thats like saying there is no gravy for the roast!?
Congrats H0ughy, that looks pretty tasty to me cheers for that

Mate, I havent even looked at it/them visually yet LOL
I always wait till I can see the whites of their eye's tho

[Greg Bryant]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

H0ughy, nice job comet looks like she is coming along nicely

Hi Greg,
ahh!, thanks, I thought that may be the case, I must of been thinking of Kevin's view up there in Mackay

cheers

Kearn,

We were only observing it at low altitude because:

1) It had risen and I wanted to see what it looked like at low-altitude
2) The previous night had seen some cloud come over, so I wasn't taking any chances.
3) One should always kneel before comets

No doubt you've seen the news today, but for those who haven't heard, roughly 40 fragments of the comet have now been detected, though some of their lifetimes may be very short.

Cheers,

[fringe_dweller]

SPLAT! Cool shot posted today of component B clearly breaking up/losing its composure http://comete.uai.it/comete/73P-B_060420.jpg
looks a bit similar to the famous dec '95 shot from Jim V. Scotti of the breakup of 73P!? http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/24mar_73p.htm

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Hoping for clear skies to see it next month !

[h0ughy (David)]

I imaged the comet last night/this morning actually. here is an unprocessed shot, raw just transferred into photoshop and made a jpeg.

Canon 300d modified, Celetron C8 on eq6 unguided and not polar aligned (thats more than evident ) for 29 seconds at 3200 ISO ( I used it to find the comet and centralise in the camera). I only decided to go out at the last moment and setup at midnight.

[RB (Andrew)]

Good one Dave.
Does anyone know what mag the comet is atm?

[h0ughy (David)]

now boys and girls, then using images plus one must learn how to operate the program or you get this

I will retry this later when I view the tutorials again in Images Plus

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Rocket Boy

Good one Dave.
Does anyone know what mag the comet is atm?

try here, took me a while in the moonlight to find it

[RB (Andrew)]

Thanks Dave,

Did it improve in appearence since Ilford?
I know the moon interered last night.

[fringe_dweller]

Again, you have yourself another piece of history in the making h0ughy
Superb effort - I expect more good things from you when its closer in may!

RB, the main fragment - component C, is somewhere between mag 8 and mag 8.8?, going by reported obs I have read lately

Component B (now Ba and Bb? lol) is still doing interesting things
http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org/73p_b060421.jpg
http://comete.uai.it/comete/73P-B_060420b.jpg
http://lnx.astrocampania.org/galleri...l21_GuiSos.jpg
and component G is also interesting - very similar to B
http://comete.uai.it/comete/73P-G_060420.jpg

Hey wheres Kevin? too many late nights imaging sw3??? wearing out those windows? maybe someone painted them shut and he cant open them? hope everything is ok there cometcatcher!