There has been a bit of discussion on comets-ml about 6P's outburst, the comet has brightened rapidly to mag 7.8 at last report.
Observations are encouraged, visual and photographic.
The comet should be able to be seen in binoculars from a dark sky.
The map I uploaded earlier in this post was wrong -- transposed some elements while entering them into Megastar. Specifically the figure for orbital inclination was wrong. The map supplied by Liz (below) is correct.
Sorry for the dopey mistake!
Les D
Last edited by ngcles; 20-08-2008 at 08:52 PM.
Reason: Error
Socked in hare now, and the next few days weather forecasts look bad. Will get the scope put if it clears. It is well placed for observation in Saggitarius and moving SE.
Scott
Hi Guys!
I observed 6P last night, made it out at mag 7.6, DC= 5-6 and Dia= 16'.
The observations were not affected by moonlight, i made the obs at 7:28pm EST, limiting mag 6.5, from Kirby Observatory grounds in Armidale, i used my 10" f/5 dob and 40mm Plossl.
I didn't see a tail visually, other reports have the coma at 7' dia, i observed quite a large coma and strong central condensation, it filled 1/6th FOV of the 40mm (x31) eyepiece.
I also saw C/2008 A1 McNaught, which is quite bright and strongly condensed as well, i made it out at mag 6.4, and dia= 6.8', slight coma extension to the SE. I could almost make out a tail but the comet being 12 degrees above the SW horizon i wouldn't like to think it was anything worth noting until i get a better look at it!
Pic from last night. Lots of moon by the time I got to take these and it is cloudy tonight. For what it is worth it is a stack of 5 x 5 min exposures through my VC200L with a 40D at 1800mm. Processed and stacked with Iris
Wow, top pick Terry. I had a look at this comet last night, didn't do any magnitude estimates, but could see the coma and brightenning towards the centre. The coma showed a slight elongation to the SE as previously mentioned. No tail was visible. I used the 12" Dobs and a 17mm LVW (88x) for the best view. Tried a UHC filter at a whim, but no extra detail was achieved.
Nice Pic Terry.
You've also captured signs of intelligent life, seems every
star has mounted a synchronised attempt to send us a message in Morse Code..... I wonder what '5' means...
If there were 6 dot's they'd be saying 'HI'
Yes I'm going crazy....
Nice Pic Terry.
You've also captured signs of intelligent life, seems every
star has mounted a synchronised attempt to send us a message in Morse Code..... I wonder what '5' means...
If there were 6 dot's they'd be saying 'HI'
Yes I'm going crazy....
6 dots would mean that I had more patience and would have kept taking more frames and not been as p'd off with the moon.
Not in Terry's class, but here's my shot from last night, hand-guided with slo-mo knobs on EQ1.
Visually, it was pretty faint in my scope - averted vision helped. However, C/2008 A1 McNaught was quite bright, like a smallish, bright, centrally-condensed globular cluster. Well worth a look, but get it early before it sets!
