Comet Lovejoy now a nekkid-eye object - NOW ALSO WITH SUrPRIsE MYSTERY GUEST

[rodekyll]

Comet Lovejoy is headed toward the sun.  It can be seen without binoculars as it runs up the right side of the constellation Orion.


Here's a link to a report with sky maps.  It's all winter stormy here (unlike the lower 48  ::)  ) so we don't get to see it for a few more days.  How about someone with clear skies and a camera get us a report?   For camera work (tripod recommended) -- try 400 - 800 iso, 80 - 200 mm at a low f-stop (2.8 - 3.5) and bracket from 3sec up to about 15sec.  Longer exposures make for star tails and 'streak' the comet.

edit -- link didn't work -- trying again.  You'll need to scroll down a little to find the maps.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/binocular-comet-lovejoy-heading-c2014-q2-lovejoy-1211142/

[radguzzi]

Thanks rodekyll,
I'll take a peek tonight... 

Best,
Rob

[Lannis]

Thanks rodekyll,
I'll take a peek tonight... 

Best,
Rob

94% waning gibbous moon, probably not going to be able to see the comet ... too much light.

Lannis

[rodekyll]

The websites tracking this say the comet is visible even with the moon, although you need optical enhancement to see the decidedly green tail.  On a related note, it's getting brighter.  Even though it's moving away from Earth, it's closing on the sun.  The sun's effect at lighting it up is much stronger than the effect of the increasing distance.

Lovejoy was not expected to get as bright as it is, and now the excited speculation is that it will really flare as it nears sol.  Nobody is saying it will be as dramatic as Hale Bopp in the 90s, but then again they're not saying it won't.  Stay tuned.

Hale Bopp in the 90s



Note the full moon (light cloud cover over both the moon and comet) and northern lights at the bottom of both pics.

[steven c]

 Here in Ct, clear sky, Orion in plane view, but I don't see it, Sirius is bright ,Jupiter looks great. It's also 2 out with winds to 40 so I'm not setting up the camera even if I could see it! I have a Sky guide AP but it doesn't show the comet Lovejoy.

[rodekyll]

The link I gave plots the comet.

2 out.  That's cold.  Here in Sitka we're above freezing.  Raining like hell, but not freezing.

[wavedog]

After reading this I went outside with my trusty high powered bino's and took a look. It's up there and it's beautiful.  Thanks for the notification.

[steven c]

 I think between the moon and being near Hartford and Springfield  the light pollution is washing out the sky. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a ride out to the country.

[Moto]

I see it here in Madison, WI, with 7x50 binoculars in a very washed-out sky! It's right on the track shown in RK's linked map, but it's closer to the tick mark for Jan 9 than 7. It is immediately noticeable with the binoculars as a faint blob, with no visible tail. I hadn't read or heard of this one -- much obliged, RK!
(It's minus 6F here, with wind chill of minus 19.)
Here's a photo of my copy of the map indicating where Lovejoy is right now; note the "X" marked on the path near the arrow pointing from my note.

[jazzamoto]

Been tracking it the past few nights here in heavily light polluted Richmond, CA with the same chart BTW. No sign of tail yet but the core and coma are getting larger each night. Might try some narrow band filters tomorrow.

John

[steven c]

 I was looking in that area with my 7x30's no luck I'll try again tonight.
  So it is more of a blob?

[Gliderjohn]

Okay, help dummies like me. Do I look north, west, east or south from Kansas?
GliderJohn

[radguzzi]

Oddly enough, we had cloud cover here last night so no viewing for me here in SoCal...

[Moto]

Here's a little guidance for would-be observers.  :)

In Kansas, you can try observing between, say, 7:30 and 12:30 tonight. You need to find the constellation Orion as a reference location. It will be low in the sky to the east southeast at 7:30 and pretty high in the sky to the South by midnight. Orion is the most prominent winter constellation, which you can read about in Wikipedia if you're not familiar with it. It's a large box made of four bright stars (his tunic or maybe his arms and legs), with a "belt" of three stars in the middle, and a "sword" of three other stars hanging down from the belt. Orion will be leaning over on its left side (i.e., to your left) at 7:30 but will be more or less right side up at midnight. (Don't even think about what he looks like in Australia; those blokes really are standing upside down!)

Once you find Orion, you can use the two lower stars on the lower edge of the box as both a measuring stick and a direction guide. The right-most star on that bottom edge is a bright blue star, Rigel. What you need to do is find those two stars, gauge their distance apart roughly in your view through your binoculars, and make that distance your unit of measurement. The comet will be about three of those units up and to the right from the lower-right star, Rigel. By "up" I mean in the direction toward the top of the Orion box, whether or not the box is tilted at the time you observe. (See the chart in my earlier post.) You can quickly scan in that general area, going back and forth like plowing a field (Kansas reference!). If your binoculars are in focus -- they need to be! -- the stars in your field of view will be little points of light, but one object will seem quite fuzzy. That puffball is Comet Lovejoy, assuming you have a clear sky.

Some additional pointers. 7x50 binoculars are twice as good as 7x35 binoculars for this because they collect twice as much light. The moon will rise about 9:00 tonight in mid Kansas (Salina), so the sky should be darkest maybe before 8pm; if you have a clear view to the southeast that could be the best time for you. But it's not a hard comet to find, even in my light-polluted Madison neighborhood. Each night the moon will rise 50 minutes later, giving you that much more time with darker skies.

The comet reached its closest approach to Earth on the 7th (yesterday), but will still be getting brighter, they say, through the next couple of weeks.

Since the comet is just a small fuzzy ball, looking a lot like a little cloud in the binoculars, it is best appreciated by thinking about what it is you are seeing, rather than just looking. You should definitely read the article in Sky and Telescope that RK linked to, in order to get that appreciation.

Instructions for continental United States viewers who are not in Kansas would be similar, but local times and the elevation of Orion at midnight would differ. A good, free program for planning sky watching sessions is Stellarium, which I used to describe the Salina sky for this evening. I recommend it. It works on PC, Mac, and Linux. But you won't need it to find this comet.

The comet could hardly be better positioned for North American viewers. Good luck.

Moto

[rodekyll]

Really good write-up!    ;-T

[Stevex]

That comet has a hell of an orbit; wont visit earth again for 8,000 years!
If there's a human left to look for it.

[Gliderjohn]

Thanks Moto for the write up. That helps a lot. ;-T
GliderJohn

[rodekyll]

That comet has a hell of an orbit; wont visit earth again for 8,000 years!
If there's a human left to look for it.

I'm hoping the weather is better that night.  But by then I might have a camera that works through three cloud ceilings.  One can hope.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Haven't been able to see it, Overcast skys.

[Moto]

Thanks Moto for the write up. That helps a lot. ;-T
GliderJohn

John, it looks like you should have good skies tonight in Walton. Good luck!

John/Moto

[Nic in Western NYS]

Saw it last night, with my wife and 3 year old.  MAYBE a naked eye object, 90% sure but at the limit of my perception and near enough to a similar mag star that I might have had some wishful thinking .  Bright, easy object for my 11x80 University Optics/Sky Window mirror rig.

[wyrtyr2]

Pulled the family outside around 8:30PM last night.  Nice view w/ our Fujinon bino's.  Didn't linger, as it was -6F...  Thanks for the excellent write up!

[Nic in Western NYS]

Since the comet is just a small fuzzy ball, looking a lot like a little cloud in the binoculars, it is best appreciated by thinking about what it is you are seeing, rather than just looking. You should definitely read the article in Sky and Telescope that RK linked to, in order to get that appreciation.

You got that right.  Reminds me of the MSF motto: The more you know the better it gets.

[Moto]

Well, Lovejoy is still up there, but this is running into money for me now, dang it RK.

I decided on Friday I would try to see Uranus and Neptune -- both would be firsts for me -- but could only see Uranus with my Fujinon 7x50 binoculars, so I wandered on to Amazon and bought some 15x70 binoculars incredibly cheaply (Celestron Skymasters, $61). I received them today and tonight find they are amazingly better than what I had. Tonight I've seen Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter (and at least two of its moons, Callisto and Ganymede), and figure I'll get up early to see Saturn and so complete the Grand Tour of all the planets. I also observed the Great Nebula in Orion and the Lovejoy comet again.

I'm now contemplating buying the Sky Window binocular viewing device that Nic brought to our attention. Where will this all end?

Don't know. Having fun though. I recommend those binoculars to any who are interested in this stuff. They are only 9 ounces heavier than my 7x50's, at 3lbs, 1 oz, and I was able to hand-hold them with fairly good results. Two day delivery with Amazon Prime....

Moto

[rodekyll]

We've not had a clear night here since I first posted this.  I doubt I'll see the comet.  Goodonya to everyone who checked it out, and I'm envious of the new celestial viewing gear.   ;-T

[Nic in Western NYS]

Well, Lovejoy is still up there, but this is running into money for me now, dang it RK.

I decided on Friday I would try to see Uranus and Neptune -- both would be firsts for me -- but could only see Uranus with my Fujinon 7x50 binoculars, so I wandered on to Amazon and bought some 15x70 binoculars incredibly cheaply (Celestron Skymasters, $61). I received them today and tonight find they are amazingly better than what I had. Tonight I've seen Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter (and at least two of its moons, Callisto and Ganymede), and figure I'll get up early to see Saturn and so complete the Grand Tour of all the planets. I also observed the Great Nebula in Orion and the Lovejoy comet again.

I'm now contemplating buying the Sky Window binocular viewing device that Nic brought to our attention. Where will this all end?

Don't know. Having fun though. I recommend those binoculars to any who are interested in this stuff. They are only 9 ounces heavier than my 7x50's, at 3lbs, 1 oz, and I was able to hand-hold them with fairly good results. Two day delivery with Amazon Prime....

Moto

If you get the bug, there is no end.  The quality of astrophotography these days that can be produced with equipment available to an amateur on a budget is like what the pros were doing 40 years ago or so.  My 3 year old is the first of my children to show an interest in astronomy, so I have a great excuse over the next couple of years to load up a bit (for the good of the child of course).  Have never bought anything 'go-to' but might try it so that the little one doesn't get bored in the wait to find the object.

Sky Window is a great piece of engineering.  Just take it out, plop it down on a low table and there you go.  It also works well set up on the trunk of my Ford 500.

Nic

[Moto]

Thanks for the Sky Window report.

Looking again at the Sky and Telescope website I found some fascinating pictures of changes in the tail of the comet, including a sudden ejection of a great "plasma bubble" that must have been on the order of a quarter million miles across, if my trigonometry holds. This sort of thing plus the beautiful colors of the comet (and what these mean about its composition) make me want to follow RK's original photographic instructions in order to see more than binoculars can provide. Don't have the right camera though. I am getting a new appreciation for the dynamism and excitement of comets.

Sent from Tapatalk.

[steven c]

 Saw the green comet tonight with my &x35's. I couldn't wait another 8 thousand years.

[rodekyll]

It's coming into early view in the far northern latitudes now.  Tonight it's just below the Pleiades, which rises right after sunset.

Still raining here. 

[lucydad]

RK,

Skies actually clearing this weekend in Houston area.  Is it worth a shot to try and see the comet? 

Thanks for your write up.  A life long dream has been to see a comet, yet fulfilled.