Comet and Cluster

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Hi all. A fantastic event will occur tomorrow, Mon 20 June when comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS will infringe on the open cluster IC 4665 in Ophiuchus. The comet is currently mag. 7 and is well placed for prime time evening viewing. Hope you all get a chance to observe the spectacle, even snap a photo or two! Clear skies.

Joe

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I took these images with a Canon M50 attached to my small Mak 80mm on a EQ5 mount. They were only for about 3 seconds with an ISO of 25,000.

Unfortunately, the Moon had risen before I caught a break in the clouds and my focusing was not quite right.

The first image identifies the comet; the second image shows it better.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by Tropo-Bob

I took these images with a Canon M50 attached to my small Mak 80mm on a EQ5 mount. They were only for about 3 seconds with an ISO of 25,000.

Unfortunately, the Moon had risen before I caught a break in the clouds and my focusing was not quite right.

The first image identifies the comet; the second image shows it better.

Thanks for that Bob! Unfortunately for me last night was cloudy so I didn't see a thing.Tonight looks better...

[Dave882 (David)]

I've taken a couple of quick shots of this comet - on the 27th May and again last night. I put together as quick gif. Pretty messy and my mount was going crazy fro some reason. My fov is too small to get the background clusters sorry but the comet and tail is somewhat resolved in approx 1o'clock direction.

IIS gif file size limits are very small so here's a link:

20th June

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by Dave882

I've taken a couple of quick shots of this comet - on the 27th May and again last night. I put together as quick gif. Pretty messy and my mount was going crazy fro some reason. My fov is too small to get the background clusters sorry but the comet and tail is somewhat resolved in approx 1o'clock direction.

IIS gif file size limits are very small so here's a link:

20th June

Good work Dave

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Nice work Dave!

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

I had the opportunity last night to observe IC 4665 and C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS. Beautiful sight, comet PANSTARRS has a huge coma. It looked like an unresolved globular cluster. Clear skies to all.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Hi
Thanks for the heads up about the comet and cluster. I did try and observe the comet and cluster on Monday evening from my Bortle 5/6 skies. In the 70mm binos I thought that I could see a faint smudge in the approx location. Took some images with an 127mm apo, 550D and CLS filter, even at 60 sec. exp time , nothing was showing up, maybe the filter was killing the comet as well as the light pollution.
Didn't try last night though it was clear again, felt a bit underwhelmed from the previous night and I generally like chasing faint fuzzies.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Had an attempt at getting some images last night / this morning of the cluster, comet and Beta Oph. The local light pollution doesn't do any favours for faint comets, will be interested in how much coma will be visible once I do some processing. Comet is barely visible in 70mm binos', though the contrast with nearby Cebalrai wasn't helping.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I was lucky enough to make this shot of the comet tonight when it was close to Beta Ophiuchus. Unfortunately, I lost the battle to clouds before I was able to fine tune my efforts.

Taken at prime focus of my Vixen 140mm.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Nice reports Jeff and Bob, hopefully this comet will brighten more next month when it makes its closest approach to earth

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

This is the comet at about 9pm this evening; taken at prime focus with a Tak 100 F7.4.

I sat outside for 90mins before getting this small break in the clouds.

Oh, for a good evening .... and um, I need to work on my fine focusing.