I think this comet is only visable in the Northern Hemisphere, but i only hope it is visable for us in the southern. Will make a spectacular event, i certainly will be eagerly to photography this one through my telescope for sure.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,292
It’s observing geometry is difficult but better for us than the northern hemisphere where it is nearly impossible. We have a dawn window late September and early October and a dusk window around October 20.
The once in a lifetime nonsense is typical media beat up. The comet is potentially bring but not as bright as half a dozen comets of the past few decades.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,292
I use Starry Night Pro. When the comet was discovered, I downloaded the besselian elements from the Harvard server and created my own comet orbit in Starry Night.
I have been checking Sky Safari for the best views from my location. For my observatory, it's the early morning easterly aspect prior to sunrise the last week of September. I am blocked to the lower elevations to the west, so I need to image it prior to sunrise.
Playing around with different latitudes, it looks like any Queensland location with a good easterly aspect will be ideal around the morning of the 24th of September. Prior to sunrise the comet will be at 20 degrees above the horizon almost due east. My son's location in Dysart will be great, nice and dark and flat to the east. Importantly usually cloud free. If I had to pick one ideal spot for imaging it would be in an ocean facing unit in a Gold Coast high rise, but it would need to be a perfectly clear morning, which is unusual. It's a fairly bright comet, should be a good show.
I was able to import the comet location in Stellarium- accurate location achieved for shooting this image in June.
Looking forward to this in the hope it lives up to the hype!
Anth.
C/2023 A3 is quite gettable now if you've got clear skies and flat horizons. Terry Lovejoy recovered it on the morning of the 12th (11th UT). I've imaged it yesterday and today from Hay NSW (14 & 15 Sept). I've attached a couple of images including a full-frame at 200mm. Note that the dates on the images are UT, not local time. I tried visually through binoculars this morning but the sky was too bright and I couldn't see the comet or any nearby stars. Also note that the Moon will start interfering soon.
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,292
I worked out my problem. I was looking in the wrong place.
I originally set up the comet orbit in my Starry Night program, early last year just after discovery, by entering those first derived Besselian Orbital elements. I checked the Besselian elements today. The elements have been refined and updated at the Harvard minor planet centre and mine were now different enough that the old elements are showing the comet at the wrong position. I'll get it next time. So it wasn't in the expected position with respect to the field stars. When the Moon relents a bit.
I realised when I saw a photo online taken at the same time I was observing and the comet appeared to be in the wrong place relative to the field stars.
I worked out my problem. I was looking in the wrong place.
I originally set up the comet orbit in my Starry Night program, early last year just after discovery, by entering those first derived Besselian Orbital elements. I checked the Besselian elements today. The elements have been refined and updated at the Harvard minor planet centre and mine were now different enough that the old elements are showing the comet at the wrong position. I'll get it next time. So it wasn't in the expected position with respect to the field stars. When the Moon relents a bit.
I realised when I saw a photo online taken at the same time I was observing and the comet appeared to be in the wrong place relative to the field stars.
cheers
Joe
Haha, I've definitely been there. I was a little worried that my week old orbital information in Stellarium was out of date already when I couldn't find it yesterday morning.
As it would turn out. its just really faint, and my horizon is murky.
I manage to spot it this morning (~4:55am) from my backyard through my 10x50 binoculars. Now that i knew exactly where is was, I caught the briefest of glimpses with the naked eye.
My Horizon was too murky to make out much of the tail, but the nucleus was a tiny pinpoint of light with a diffuse shell.
Another successful visual observation with the binoculars this morning. Its nice that it's getting here earlier and earlier in the morning. I'm going to setup to try and catch some images tomorrow morning.
Looking through it's positional information for the next few weeks, it looks like my best pre-dawn observation will be around the 26-28th of September, when it's highest, earliest.
However, the long term weather forecast currently disagrees.
Picked it up in 7x50s around 5:25am NZT this morning after it cleared my local horizon and clutter at around 7° of altitude. Very conspicuous, so expecting a longer session decided to bring out the 8" f/6 Dob with a 28mm eyepiece in it. Power 43x, exit pupil 4.7mm. The Dob has an 8x50 RACI:
Compact object, bright coma, obvious tail in all optics.
5:40 - tail lost in finder*
5:46 - whole object no longer visible in finder but still very obvious in main EP, Sun alt. -8°
5:55 - tail lost in main EP*
6:08 - whole object no longer visible in main EP, Sun alt. -4.5°
6:29 - Sunrise
(times are approximate)
i certainly will be eagerly to photography this one through my telescope for sure.
