How to Find Comets

[Frostyricho (Stephen)]

Hi members of IIS,
haven't made a post in a while as i haven't had much time to do anything due to school and having my exam block coming up. Anyways moving on. On Sunday i wanted to try and get the comet passing mars but don't know how to find them. Is it possible to find them with just me moving the telescope. Also i have stellarium so i think i will be able to find where comets are.

Kind regards Stephen Naraj
Eyes to the skies

[blink138 (Pat)]

stephen there is a way of putting comets into stellarium, i have done it following instructions from some members here however i do not remember now
hopefull somebody will chime in!
pat

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-700-0-0-1-0.html

This may help.

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Alternatively, there are quite a few "planetarium" / astronomy apps for mobile devices (iOS and Android) which will automatically download a sizeable catalog of comet data, and display their location, magnitude etc for you.

"SkySafari 4" in particular is one that I would recommend taking a look at if you have a compatible smartphone or tablet, and "Night Sky Tools" is also quite handy.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Why not do it the simple old fashion way?

Check the comet emphemerides, plot the position on your star charts, and star-hop to the position.

eg. Comet 2012 K1 Panstarrs on the 25th October will be in position RA 7h 04m dec 39 53S (find this in astronomy year book or on the net)

Plotting this position finds it in Puppis, not far from Pi Puppis.

Then get out with your scope before midnight and look for the comet.

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

Or you can use this page. http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-s.html

At the moment the only comet bright enough for small scopes is 2012 K1 Panstarrs.