Astronomy, Photography and Weather

A bit early to be discussing comets in 2010 but I think this is worthy of addressing just out of interest. Comet C/2009 R1 McNaught is predicted to reach mag +6.3 on June 13th 2010 in Perseus very close to where comet Holmes erupted. It's interesting to note the location and the time of year. Bright twilight will make this an unlikely faint naked eye object for us, however with good cameras, it might be an interesting target during the darkest period' of the night. The comet will be visible near, or within, any Noctilucent Cloud displays during that period!. I don't think I have ever seen an image of a comet within NLCs before so there looks to be fun and challening times ahead for astrophotographers and visual observers. Cerainly one to keep an eye on incase of an outburst.

During Sept and Oct 2010 103P/Hartley 2 is expected to reach mag +3.0 (other sources say mag +5.0) as a naked eye object high in the sky. So, two binocular/border line naked eye comets for next year. Perhaps it's an omen of a brighter comet for the same year which is just waiting to be discovered.

Thanks for the heads up well in advance Martin, never too early to start thinking about it. I don't think I'll have the opportunity with the NLC's, but I''ll definitly have darker skies and less twilight being at a lower latitude. Looks like a nifty fiftyevent for me!

I was thinking of you and Tyler when I wrote this  :), you guys get the best view with a dark sky. I can see some interesting images on here next year!.

It will be amazing to see a comet and NLCs at the same time, a good telephoto shot (or the big fifty) would produce a nice capture, can you imagine glowing electric blue NLCs and a comet in the same frame - the connection is amazing since NLC dust particles may have come from comets in the first place.  2010 is looking to be an interesting year for astronomy so far.  :)

Here's some more info...

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-comet-discovery-c2009-r1-mcnaught.html

R1 could reach mag +5.0 by the end of June but only 18 degrees from the Sun.

Good news, gentlemen!  :)

And again Perseus!  ;D

I saw this comet yesterday, when it was announced as 9R7597B on NEOCP, although decided to wait until it gets a designation.

That's quite a nice comet, some people predict the maximum at +3...+4m. So let's hope... 

A bright comet would be nice for a change, we've got to be due one!  :)

This comet still looks interesting, it's currently brighter than expected and could reach mag +3.0 in June, more optimistic sites are going for mag +2.0  :), would be nice to get a bright comet near NLCs. It is a new Oort cloud comet though so it will be very unpredictable and could slow down it's rate of brightening at the crucial moment, fingers crossed it puts on a good show.

Chart from Skyhound.com

(http://i41.tinypic.com/awpro.gif)

It has been unobservable for a while, but now it is appearing in the morning sky. Now it is 10.0 mag, much brighter than originally expected (Apr. 25, Marco Goiato). It will approach to the sun down to 0.4 A.U. in July, and it is expected to reach up to 2-3 mag. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is observable only until June...Seiichi Yoshida

(http://i39.tinypic.com/20ggy1g.gif)

Thanks for the charts Martin ;)

Lets hope for clear skies and bright comets  :P

Wow, that's very opitimistic.

Alan Hale reports the comet at mag +9.5 last week, it should be brightening rapidly now.

Got a report sent to me from Australia, this morning R1 one was seen in 7x50 binos at mag +7.8

Thats good news its getting brighter.  For me though it needs to get to mag 6 before its worth getting the bins out, what with all my light pollution and the brightening twilight arch that we have at the moment.   If we're really unlucky it could be completely washed out bt NLC  :P

From Sky & Tel...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/94277259.html

We rarely see a good comet when it's at its best. Most comets are brightest when nearest the Sun - just when they’re most likely to be hidden in the Sun’s glare or below the sunrise or sunset horizon. That's the situation this spring with Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught). Even so, observers in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to pick it up with telescopes, and possibly binoculars, just before dawn for at least part of June, during its run up in brightness. And in fact, the comet is turning out to be 1 or 2 magnitudes brighter that we predicted in the June Sky & Telescope (page 60). Let's hope this behavior keeps up!

Comet Timetable

As of mid-May the comet was about magnitude 8.5 (compared to the 10 we originally predicted), as it rose about an hour before the start of astronomical twilight for mid-northern observers. Throughout this apparition it will be low in the east or northeast when dawn begins to brighten. May 31st will find McNaught, now hopefully 6th or 7th magnitude, passing 2½° southeast of the 2nd-magnitude star Beta Andromedae. At the beginning of astronomical twilight it’s a respectable 20° up as seen by observers at 40° north latitude. But the waning gibbous Moon will brighten the sky.

On the morning of June 5th the comet skims just north of the large, loose open cluster NGC 752. On June 6th and 7th it’s within about 2° of the 2nd-magnitude double star Gamma Andromedae. The Moon is much thinner then, but also closer to the comet. Mid-June is when Comet McNaught should be most interesting, offering the best compromise between its increasing brightness and its decreasing altitude at the start of dawn. Moreover, the sky will be free of moonlight.

The helpful conjunctions continue as the comet passes about 1° north of the open cluster M34 in Perseus on the morning of June 10th, and 3° south of 1.8 magnitude Mirfak (Alpha Persei) on the 13th. It’s still about 15° high in the northeast as the sky starts to grow light on June 15th, but it appears roughly 1° lower every day after that. The comet passes zero-magnitude Capella on the 21st, and it’s very low by the 24th, when it passes 2nd-magnitude Beta Aurigae. By now Comet McNaught may be as bright as 4th or 5th magnitude, but moonlight is returning.

The comet will be lost to view by June’s end - just before it reaches perihelion on July 2nd, 0.405 astronomical unit from the Sun. It remains far from Earth throughout this apparition, never venturing closer than 1.135 a.u. (in mid-June). After perihelion it will fade rapidly as it heads to the far-southern sky. The comet is approaching on a hyperbolic orbit, which means that it’s making its first trip in from the Oort Cloud. So its brightness is even less predictable than usual. Will it flare unexpectedly or perhaps fizzle right out?

Many McNaughts

This particular Comet McNaught is one of 54 (and counting) named for Robert H. McNaught of Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory. He works in the Siding Spring Survey, funded by NASA to record large swaths of sky to find potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. The survey also turns up many other moving objects. McNaught found this comet (which will never come near Earth) at 17th magnitude on an image taken last September 9th. Pre-discovery images quickly established its orbit.

The most famous of the Comet McNaughts is C/2006 P1, also known as the Great Comet of 2007. It was an easy naked-eye sight when passing near the Sun in mid-January of that year, shining at magnitude –5 or –6, and in the following days it flung a gigantic, multi-banded tail across the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky

Hello guys, I am now at the Ukraine's most exciting star party - UAF-2010 near Eupatoria, Crimea. Last night I had my first piece of some clear (and very dark!!!) skies. Just before dawn had barely seen C/2009R1 in Pegasus, then lost it 10 minutes later because the sky was bright but not perfectly transparent. Had also observed 81P and C/2009K5 last night. Three comets per night is a personal record for me  :) , btw two of them I've seen for the first time, and in total they're mine 8th and 9th comets. I will try to post here much more detailed info (and photos!) soon after I'll get home.
Cheers

P.S. ZNELM is near 6.4 at my current site, and Milky Way is awesome - shining bright from Cassiopeia to Sagittarius/Scorpio, as low as -37deg DEC.

Well done Roman!!, congrats on catching R1  :)

I'm hoping to make my first sighting of the comet any night now, it has just climbed high enough here to hunt down from the back garden, darn street light is on the comet though!.

Sounds like you had a great session. Keep us informed about how your'e getting on. R1 must be close to 7t mag now if it's still brightening at the current rate.

Here's a nice image from Michael Jager

(http://i46.tinypic.com/33axcls.jpg)

Thanks for the update Martin! :)

I look forward to (hopefully!) seeing the comet soon...   ::)

That's a dead ringer for Comet Swan of October 2006!

I have a good view in the right direction circa 0400hrs, and a promise of a clear sky, so I'll have a go at this. Tonight would be my candidate for first NLC sighting of the season too. And I'm not at work tomorrow :)

Good luck all.

Paul.

Both sound good to me Paul  :) - I was thinking the same thing.

02.30-03.00 would be a good time for R1, sky is too bright after that. Best of luck.

Wow, it is already reported to be between 6.5-7.0 magnitude!  :) I need to see it as soon as possible!

BTW, please pay attention for this website www.observatorij.org/cobs/ (http://www.observatorij.org/cobs/), which is a recently created database of visual comet observations.

Pete Lawrence reported this morning the comet is just about naked eye brightness now...

Can't resist to post another link to Michael Jäger's image (http://www.cometpieces.at/images/phocagallery/2009r120100606ut0050web.jpg) (of Jun.06)

Wow - Michael's image is awesome! - thanks for posting Roman  :)

LOL - just been watching him on The Sky at Night talking about it & the possibility of it brightening to around the ~mag 4 mark!

Another wow... I'm just back home from observing it - very nice! It was my first good observation of R1 McNaught. Although at 20° in twilight, it was easily visible in 22x32 binos. Had used to underestimate its brightness because it is well condensed. Tonight it was situated less than 2° apart from gamma Andromedae... not just easy to find - it's evident!  :)

UPD:
Here is my report

Excellent Roman!, it's technically a naked eye object now - sky is expected to clear tonight so I can't wait to get out and have a look. Check out the amazing new images of R1 on Spaceweather today.

Nice reports there lads, me too I'm hoping to get out tonight in a few hours to have a look at this fella, hopefully the weather will be favourable.....

Keith...

Hoping to get a look at him tonight Keith if this cloud clears, would be cool to get R1 and NLCs in the same season. Best of luck.

You too Martin, it's clearing here in Cavan now, hopefully it will stay that way, I've set the alarm for 1:45...

and maybe get a shot of R1 & an NLC together!

Keith.

A quick finder chart for June 10 - 20.
(http://pics.livejournal.com/roman_white/pic/00003z1y) (http://pics.livejournal.com/roman_white/pic/00003z1y)

P.S. Red dot is the place where I had observed it last time.
Ufortunately, I'm too busy now and can't use each clear morning :(

Thanks for the chart Roman. This weekend is looking very good here weatherwise, though the comet will be fairly low in the northeast.We'll  hope for the best!

Here's another good chart froms skyhound.com...

http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/2009_R1.gif

Don't forget that Heavensabove has a real time chart showing exactly where the comet is each night which is very useful.

http://www.heavens-above.com/comet.aspx?cid=C%2F2009%20R1&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=CET

Conor and I made our first R1 obsv last night while watching NLCs, sky was too bright to see it without optical aid however we could see it very easily in the 8.5" reflector as a bright fuzzy blob with well condensed coma and bright central condensation, Conor could see the green colour. No tail seen however I suspected a single streamer with averted vision.

Me Too, no NLC's in cavan but I used my 15x70mm binoculars and I spotted it easily enough at about magnitude 5.5 or so, very green and definitley no tail, certainly after 2am I could not see it naked eye, I can discern a slight tail from my shot, but the twighlight is a killer.

www.flickr.com/photos/79652716@N00/4688670840/sizes/l/

Keith..

Fabulous result Keith!, looks like a suggestion of a tail on your image, great stuff. By the time the sky cleared around the comet it was 02.30 or so and the sky was so bright that we couldn't see it in binos at all and no chance of a capture on camera, hope to give it another go tonight during the darkest period of the night. Looking forward to seeing it near Capella and full mag within NLCs...

Good stuff Keith!  Think its time for me to take a look for R1 when the weather allows...

I'm really gearing up for this weekend with our positive weather forecsat. The northeast sky is completly dark till almost 04:00 here so I think I'll have better luck than most. I've got my camera lenses all nice and shiny in anticipation!!

I'm not proud of this image at all, but at least I've got McNaught documented. Out of focus(someday I'll get a camera with live view), heavily cropped, and had to wait too long to clear my trees and was caught in the beginning of twilight. This was just my test shot, actually 10 stacked images. This weekend I'll head upriver to some flatter horizons and can probably catch the comet about an hour ealier and have time to fool with my focus a bit more. She looked great through binos!

10 sec x 10, 50 mm f/2 ISO 1600

(http://i49.tinypic.com/f20jk6.jpg)

Richard, I would be proud as punch to get an image half as a good as that! - look at the length of the gas tail streaming through the rich stars fields of Perseus, that is beautiful. Congratulations on your success!. You have motivated me to get out and try harder so thank you. Best of luck on the next clear night. The BAA are going for a peak mag of +3.5 now.  :)

Very nice Richard!

Dark at 04:00? Not till September .... not dark at all here till late July!

Yahoo! :D Weekend + clear skies = guaranteed success!  ;D

The sky was great tonight! I have just observed both McNaught's C/2009K5 and C/2009R1. First one is a bit fainter than before, situated far within Camelopardalis, passing lower culmination before the dawn. Second one is the same bright and well condensed, easy to get on 8 sec exposure and visually with 22x32 binos, although not enough for naked-eye: the sky is too bright. Have made an experiment - to follow the R1 comet as long as possible (with 20x90B). As result, I've lost it at 03:21 EEST, comet alt. 25° az. 047°; Sun alt. -9.1° az. 037°. Will post more detailed reports in a day or two.

P.S.
(http://pics.livejournal.com/roman_white/pic/00005603)
12.06.2010, 02:27 EEST, altitude 19 deg., single frame 8sec @ ISO3200 f/4.3, levels adjusted

Nice one Roman, well done!!  :)

Cloudy last night but got a sudden clearance so rushed out in the car and set-up in a field and got a capture before the clouds rolled in again. Nothing great but I got my first capture of this comet which shows just how bright the twilight sky is here. I reckon during the 'darkest' period of the night it should be a fairly easy naked eye object with averted vision. Might have to wait until Sun for the next clear night.

(http://i50.tinypic.com/qnu5bk.jpg)

Glad you got a snap of Mc Naught Martin. Yes it is visible with averted vision, but you have to almost look crosseyed lol, very inconspicuous(?) if you didn't know where to look. What time was your image taken? I see what you mean about the lightness in your sky. The comet image below was taken at 03:02 local time, but I was quite surprised by 04:00 the light just popped and began to wash everything out in the east. I drove to a rock quarry about a mile NE of town and was surprised at how dark it was there, of course I was looking out over 75 miles of National Forest with no towns. With all my attention to the NE, I was quite surprised once when I turned around and saw the Milky Way in the south, almost scared me, just beautiful. So it was a very eventful morning for me despite the lack of sleep


(http://i49.tinypic.com/afeqh1.jpg)


(http://i49.tinypic.com/4j9x09.jpg)

Beautiful images Richard, love the Milky Way structure with star clusters and dust clouds, what a fantastic location, it must be all the more special with the tall trees seen against the stars. Look how much the comet has moved between our two images. The image was taken approx 01.20 BST.

Tonight I was at the country location, have seen the comet R1 again, however had not much time&wish to thouroughly estimate it. Yes, Martin, it moves very noticeable night from night apart. At first glance through 20x90B it looked the same as before, but then it seemed to us that the coma is elongated to NW. I guess there was something like a tail 10-15' long, but I cannot confirm that fact.

Good luck everyone with catching it before it would be near perihelion!  :)

P.S. Stunning image, Richard!  :)

Good to see you've been getting your observations in, and a nice overview all round from y'all with the photos.  Keep em' coming, always great to see.  I've got my fingers crossed for later in the week/weekend for getting a view in  ::)

Got this last night - circa 0200...

(http://niphotography.co.uk/images/mcnaught100615v2.jpg)

Cheers,

Paul.

Well done Paul, can see the elongation of the coma and hint of tail - very nice!

Got this not so good shot with the kit lens last night...

(http://i45.tinypic.com/1673q1.jpg)

Cool! 

What are the lens details of that last photo Paul?

I deserve to be kicked off the forum for this......................

Last night was pretty clear for the most part & having printed off a map to help locate the comet through my camera, I decided to wait for a bit while it cleared the trees to the NE.

Next thing remember is waking up to an already brightening sky!! Shame on me for wasting a clear night.

Looks promising for tonight at my location so it looks like the cloud gods have given me a second chance.

A couple of nice shots Paul & Martin. Paul I, too, would be interested in the lens & exposure details for your shot.

Nah. Buy a kitchen timer & learn to use it.  ;)

Great shot Paul, nice detail!

Shame on you Andy...tut tut, consider yourself warned  ;) - just kidding. Maybe you needed the sleep, best to relax one night and save your energy for the next one. Good luck tonight and clear skies  :)

Cheers! Not a cloud in the sky at the moment!  (http://www.mackenzie1963.freeserve.co.uk/Smilies/AMac%27s/luxhello%5B1%5D.gif)

(http://www.sat24.com/image.ashx?country=gb&type=slide&time=&index=1&sat=)

made my first observation of the comet this morning, was surprised at how dim it was, although easily viewable through binos. May have a pic up in a bit

"What are the lens details of that last photo Paul?"

That's 9 shots stacked in DSS. All were 3.2secs at f3.5 with a Tokina 200mm f3.5 M42 mount lens. 1 shot was ISO1600, the other 8 were ISO800 - I decided the skyglow was so much that 1600 wasn't doing anything for me.

Got my first viewe of the comet in the small hours of last Thursday and thought exactly the same as you Tyler. However by the time it had cleared most of the tree tops the sky was already quite bright & McNaught was quickly getting drowned out. I wasn't able to detect any colour through my 10X50 bins but the greenish colour was very apparent in the couple of images that I took.
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b82/BigDipper/mcnaught-1-1.jpg)

The lack of NLC's this morning (22nd) left me to have a go at R1 McNaught which was close to Capella. It was a very easy target in the 10x50 binos once I found it. The image below was the view from my back door at 00:21UT. A very noticable green with a hint of tail. Capella is the bright star lower right.
(http://i47.tinypic.com/2ps3j3m.jpg)
This image is a crop from a shot at 01:28UT using the 70-300mm at about 250mm. Notice how the comet has moved relative to those two stars below it. Again a hint of tail can be seen.
(http://i49.tinypic.com/11he8h3.jpg)
This is a cropped and enhanced image in negative to try and tease out some more tail. The image was taken on the 21st at 23:49UT. I took quite a few images some of which are still in camera, however quite a nice observing session with McNaught!
(http://i49.tinypic.com/2ppqe.jpg)

Well captured John. And yes, the negative version certainly helps to emphasise the tail stretching out at one o' clock.

Those are great shots John, I agree with Andy that the negative view makes it much easier to see the tail. At my latitude and with my terrain,  I've all but lost the comet.

David Moore has estimated the comet at Mag +3.4!

Excellent - it's getting brighter! :)