|
There are
currently three major comets in the morning sky, Comet Lovejoy
(C/2013 R1), Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) and the exploding comet Linear
X1 (C/2012 X1). We started the shooting session on a Saturday
morning at 2:30 am and worked our way from Lovejoy to ISON and
onto a new one for me - Comet Linear X1 which is terribly low
in the east. A few notes on each object:
Comet Lovejoy is
really nice and bright now, at mag 7.5 or so, and images with
a green circular coma and very faint tail extensions. It is high
up in Monoceros so you can shoot it for hours. It is by far the
best comet in the sky right now.
Comet ISON is still
coming in, but is terribly faint, around 9th magnitude with a
very faint ribbon like tail. While the head has a greenish hue,
the rest of the comet is tawny at best. I was able to last week
with a small crescent moon to see it in our 9x63 binoculars for
the first time. This morning, I could not even see it under a
dark sky and no moon with the 11 x 80s. It has faded.
Finally, ah yes,
comet Linear X1. It is extremely low in Coma Bernices and I was
able to just get on it at 5am with about 1/4 my aperture of my
12 inch becuse of the observatory wall blocked it. I shot until
morning twilight blew the sky away at around 5:30 and even then,
I had only half my aperture blocked! But I wanted to get this
one, since it had a major outburst a few weeks ago and now resembles
the "Jellyfish Comet Holmes" in shape, but not anywhere
near in brightness around mag 8 or so.
| 
