Comet C/2012 K1 (PANSTARRS) May 28

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Yet another comet, this one presently low in the northern sky. In Mackay it only ever gets a max of 25 degrees above the northern horizon, so you guys in Mexico may have a bit of trouble with this one for now.

Presently magnitude 8 something. Stay tuned as the comet is heading into southern skies.

111 x 30 second subs, ED80 @ F5.5, Pentax K-x.

[h0ughy (David)]

is that corona australis?

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

It's in Ursa Major Dave.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Very nice Kevin

Are we going to have any bright comets this year?

Jo

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Saw this comet at the SPSP on 23rd and 24th. Lat 33 south so it was not very far above horizon. must have been at least mag 8 to see so clearly at the altitude is was at and with transparency not so good. Easy to find, just used argo navis to go to NGC 3614, comet was in the same field. Needless to say the galaxy was not visible.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Great work, Kevin!

Are you autoguiding on the comet or manually tracking?

H

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks all.

Jo, this comet is coming around for a second pass later this year, same for 2014 E2 Jacques. 2013 A1 Siding Spring will be swinging by also. All 3 will be a bit brighter then.

H, no auto guiding or hardware tracking on the comet. Have to keep the subs short so the comet doesn't trail. Tracking is via software. "Comet Stacking" was selected on Deep Sky Stacker. It's hard work because the comet on each frame has to be individually selected. There are other programs that do this more automatically that I haven't looked into yet.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Oh, wow. That's a bit of a pain!

Still, great work!

I've added TheSkyLive page to bookmarks and check it daily now.

H

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Yeah The Sky Live is a great page to keep up with solar system objects. Take their comet magnitude estimates carefully though. Sometimes they don't take outbursts into consideration. For example 2014 E2 Jacques is 4 magnitudes brighter than listed and 2012 X1 LINEAR is more like 3 mags brighter.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Thanks for the heads up!

H

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

That's really nice work on Panstarrs Kevin!:thumbsup :

Lovely colour on stars and comet, sharp too.

Cheers,

Justin.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks Justin. Glad you like the colours. You're to blame for that since I like the way you do your star colours, thought I'd do the same.

[glenc (Glen)]

Thanks Kevin for posting.
I just had a look at Comet PANSTARRS.
The coma was visible in 20x80 binoculars and a tail 10' long was visible in my 16" scope.
The mag 4.5 star 21 LMi was in the field.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Thanks for the report Glen. I've been under cloud for the last 2 weeks and am crazy frustrated. They say it will clear soon, they better be right!