we got a look at it last night at the CWAS dark sky sight just out of Parkes NSW,I picked it in my GSO 12inch dob with 30mm and 21mm ed eyepiece. John Sarkissian viewed it in his 8 inch F6 EQ reflecor with 22mm eyepiece.The date was the 5/4/2008 . It was not a good night for faint things .We noticed a lot of smoke coming from the South as we drove to the viewing site from canowindra.We got onto comet tuttle up near the LMC.We had a go at comet Skiff in virgo but I think we ended up thinking hte M61 was it.I think it is alot dimmer than my planetary program said it was. Peter canon -Clive Ward - L Crowley - Mgrimshaw Viewed the comets as well. Tony
Nice images guys! These will be good as part of a record of its brightening & movement over the next couple of months.
Here's mine from the 4th, reprocessed in Registax rather than DSS - much better, but still need it a bit brighter with my gear. Bright star is gamma Corvi.
How Chris? We've had continuous cloud and pathetic rain. Your further east where the cloud is coming from. You must have had a lucky sucker hole.
Would you believe Terry that its foggy here at home, but i drove 20kms west, to the top of Walcha Road hill and its clear as........i nabbed C/2007 B2 Skiff as well tonight, not far from W1.
8P is still around mag 8.5, W1 is 8.7, and B2 is about 12th mag and 1.5' dia.
8P and W1 are well within reach of 7x50's under dark skies!
Here is a map from SkyMapPro showing the comet's weekly position at 9pm on Friday nights. It should be magnitude 5.5 in mid June. It is 2 degrees above NGC 4038 at 9pm tonight.
Here is a map from SkyMapPro showing the comet's weekly position at 9pm on Friday nights. It should be magnitude 5.5 in mid June. It is 2 degrees above NGC 4038 at 9pm tonight.
Hi Glen,
I did notice what looked like a planetary nebula next to the comet on the 7th i think, i wasn't sure what it was, is NGC 4038 a galaxy or a PN? My SkyMap Pro doesnt give me the NGC catalogue as i don't have the original data disc when i installed the program. I can update comet ephemerides but not access NGC objects (which doesnt bother me at all!)
Hows the weather treating you up there in Casino???
Observed this in Western Australia roughly 200km south of Perth in a place called Wellington Mills on the 5/6th of April. Another astronomer found it by accident looking for the Antennae Galaxies. Its a nice comet and on the 6th (Saturday) it was quite close to the Attenae. Also in the area spotted 3 other galaxies (4029,4033 and another). Haven't found it since but we have some clear nights here in Bunbury so will look for it again this weekend!
Observed this in Western Australia roughly 200km south of Perth in a place called Wellington Mills on the 5/6th of April. Another astronomer found it by accident looking for the Antennae Galaxies. Its a nice comet and on the 6th (Saturday) it was quite close to the Attenae. Also in the area spotted 3 other galaxies (4029,4033 and another). Haven't found it since but we have some clear nights here in Bunbury so will look for it again this weekend!
G'Day Antares!
Sounds awesome! Were you imaging the Antennae at all? Would have made a nice rendezvous piccy!
Thanks Nightstalker! 4361 is indeed what i saw in the eyepiece!!!! I can really understand first hand what Messier went through and why he catalogued a lot of sky objects in his quest for comets!!!! Sometimes its hard to fathom what Messier felt during his lifetime looking at the night sky! Not much has changed really!
Things are looking up! The BAA Comet Section is now proposing mag 2 for Boattini if the present rate of brightening keeps up. They had it mag 8.5 on 16 April. Click on the "Highlights" link:
Things are looking up! The BAA Comet Section is now proposing mag 2 for Boattini if the present rate of brightening keeps up. They had it mag 8.5 on 16 April. Click on the "Highlights" link:
pity about the moon during its best evening jaunt aint that the way,
i dont understand the mag +2 prediction tho? it isnt running that far ahead of projected brightness atm, not even a whole mag diff
sure is a classic southerner/mexican comet tho
I observed it tonight in the 16", it didn't seem much different than my last observation a couple of weeks ago.
I think it's got to do something spectacular to brighten to the predicted mag?
Ron
They use formulas to predict a possible brightness peak, depending on what parameters are used. Due to the rapid brightness increase they use a formula to best fit the observations, they are predicting that by using formula: m = 6.5m + 5Ślog D + 19Ślog r, the comets predicted brightness, if the trend continues, will be around mag 2.0. But only further observations will decide exactly what magnitude it will be....as David Levy says "Comets are like cats; they have tails, and do what they want"
It's not just a "rapid" brightness increase. The comet is now becoming visible in smaller apertures.
As the comet gets brighter, observations through telescopes (and ultimately binoculars) of smaller aperture tend to rate the comet as much brighter, compared to observations from weeks earlier through larger telescopes - and even brightness estimates the same night in a larger telescope.
It's fairly well documented - on a given night, binoculars and small telescopes will appear to show a comet brighter than through a larger telescope.
Of course, when the comet is at its brightest, we'll tend to observe it through the smallest aperture available (unaided eye -> binoculars -> small telescope). So, we're more interested in what the brightness estimates are from those small apertures.
What will be interesting in the next few weeks is to follow the comet's brightness as measured by observers using binoculars and small telescopes. That will provide a better indication of what to expect in June and July.
...fortunately I have 4 more weeks before the July/August issue of Australian Sky & Telescope magazine goes to print - so we might be able to better forecast the comet's peak brightness by then.
aint that the way, 
