Comet McNaught (2006/P1) - discussions - Page 2

iceman (Mike) · #21 04-01-2007, 07:20 PM

I've never seen a naked eye comet either, well not a bright one. Linear was mag 4 or something, but I've never seen a negative mag comet! I can't wait!

sheeny (Al) · #22 04-01-2007, 07:40 PM

It'll be a climb the hill job to view from Lostock, that's for sure!

Al.

tornado33 · #23 04-01-2007, 10:56 PM

I found Mars in daylight today (round 1pm),easily seen, though its now some distance from the Sun so the sky isnt as bright where it is. Will keep trying for the comet each day it is clear from now on. Also tried imaging the area where the comet is with my infrered filter (800nm cutoff) Nothing there thus far. Looks like it may get very bright round perihelion now though, it will get a lot closer to the Sun than it is now

With the back scattering it seems it may get even brighter just AFTER perihelion?
Scott

dcnicholls · #24 04-01-2007, 11:47 PM

Interesting and encouraging projected brightness curves:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006P1/2006P1.html

DN

dcnicholls · #25 05-01-2007, 10:22 AM

That's starting to remind me a lot of Ikeya-Seki in 1965. The Dahle and latest Jäger images are what Ikeya-Seki looked like in the pre-dawn.

Something I wrote about it 10 years ago: http://www.home.aone.net.au/~byzantium/comets.html

DN

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #26 05-01-2007, 12:09 PM

Lucky this is happening during the school holidays, because if the cloud and rain persist, I'm packing the family up in the car and going comet hunting.
I'm excited.

matt · #27 05-01-2007, 01:05 PM

I'm a bit disappointed I can't find it in Starry Night Enthusiast 5.

I've downloaded the latest comet info

dcnicholls · #28 05-01-2007, 01:32 PM

I see it in SN 5.8.2 Pro Plus. Set the time for 8.30pm, the date for 15 Jaunuary, turn off the Daylight (control-D), and use the Find panel to find McNaught (C/2006 P1) under the Comets list. Set the view to the South West horizon.

You need to find and double click on McNaught and turn off daylight before it shows.

BTW, see PM.

DN

davidpretorius · #29 05-01-2007, 01:48 PM

great thread, thanks for the heads up.

go tassie!

matt · #30 05-01-2007, 01:52 PM

Hmmmmm

There's no McNaught in my comet list.

Thanks for the info, though

dcnicholls · #31 05-01-2007, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt

Hmmmmm

There's {no} McNaught in my comet list.

Thanks for the info, though

Matt,

If you're on a PC, located in C:\Program Files\Starry Night xxx\Sky Data there should be a file called comets.txt (where 'xxx' is your version of SN).

My copy is 30KB in size and does include an entry "C/2006 P1" - there are lots of McNaught comets as Rob is an NEO asteroid researcher.

PM me if you can't find C/2006 P1 in your file, and I'll email you the text file.

If it is there, in SN, try doing a Find on C/2006 or C/2006 P1 in the find panel search box.

DN

matt · #32 05-01-2007, 02:39 PM

David

My comets.txt list does conatin a few references to McNaught but none that I can find with that designation.

The weird thing is when I do a SN find... there's not a single McNaught object in there!!

So it's in my Sky Data folder but somehow not being recognised in SN??

dcnicholls · #33 05-01-2007, 02:50 PM

I seem to recall some trick was required to see comets correctly. You might take a look at the SN support page at http://www.starrynight.com/support/support_trio/
or the forum at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/StarryNight/

They're usually pretty helpful.

DN

dcnicholls · #34 05-01-2007, 02:53 PM

Or try this:
http://www.starrynight.com/support/s...=kb&article=82

I didn't have the file they refer to but you might.

DN

dcnicholls · #35 05-01-2007, 03:03 PM

And make sure comets are enabled: in the Options panel > Solar System ensure the Comets box is ticked.

DN

matt · #36 05-01-2007, 03:09 PM

Yep. The comets are enabled. I can see quite a few of them, but just no McNaught

fringe_dweller · #37 05-01-2007, 08:16 PM

the great thing is if this does indeed turn out to be another Ikeya-Seki/Comet Skjellerup-Maristany or -8 mag with a 1 degree in daylight tail type comet - a simple phone camera would probably be suffice to get a nice widefield piccy when at its best

is it (heavan forbid) tripod time!!! (!?) been waiting for a speccy tripod shot comet for a long time now

tornado33 · #38 05-01-2007, 11:44 PM

That Jan 3 shot looks bright but it was taken with a spiffy 8 inch ASA astrograph. It was around 0.4 AU's from the sun, at perihelion it will be only 0.17 AU. I remember Comet Halley, I recovered it on the same morning it was officially recovered just past perihelion, very low in the east twilight sky, it looked about as bright as venus and stellar like, kinda like Venus but with an extended coma around it. Im hoping this comet will also not only brighten, but become stellar like, if so it could be viewable in broad daylight.

I tried to view it again today, but not possible yet.

Regarding positions, Star Atlas pro has it listed when I got a recent comet elements update online (easy as clicking a single button in Star Atlas pro). I also compared its given position with what the Argo Navis indicated, and they agreed to within a few seconds of arc

Scott

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #39 06-01-2007, 12:22 AM

This is getting very exciting, hearing the possibilities of it's Magnitude!

Keep the info coming please

h0ughy (David) · #40 06-01-2007, 09:36 AM

To those attending Lostock, I will try to arrange for us to be able to access the mountain top to the east that over looks the area. That should give us an excellent horizon to take some happy snaps from the 17-20th January.

Terry given the evening sky and sunset, what camera settings would be generally recommended to start with?