Comet C/2008 T2 (Cardinal)

[Roman White]

New comet C/2008 T2 (Cardinal), discovered on Oct.01. Source: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2008T2.html

Maximum magnitude predicted to be +8,2 near the perihelion of June 16, 2009. It will be brighter than 10mag since mid-March
The comet will pass across constellations (the trajectory can change): Perseus (March), Auriga (April), Gemini (May), Canis Minor (June, when it will disappear in evening twillight).

[Roman White]

I made my first attempt to find it on Apr.11 evening (22:00 EEST), using 20cm refractor at Poltava gravimetric observatory.

The comet was situated in Auriga, 4.7^o SE from eta Aurigae within a Milky Way area rich with stars (several 7-9m stars were in 30' FOV and several 11-12m stars close to comet's position).

The altitude was only 25^o but NW was the best direction at the observing site (other were more light polluted). Under almost clear skies (some haze maybe was still present) the stellar ML was ~12.3m but I couldn't spot the comet, so I'm sure it was fainter than 9.0m.
In my opinion it is significantly fainter than by ephemeris (9.1m) or close to that but rather diffuse.

P.S. Other observers reported it as 10-10.5m and DC=2 (so I was right), only J.J.Gonzalez over^(?)estimated it at 9.2m.

[rjgjr]

This is a crop of an image I took of the constellation Auriga on the night of 15 April. It was taken with my new Canon 50 mm lens,  10 seconds f/2 ISO 1600. It is the portion of the sky where Comet T2 Cardinal is suppose to be visible. I don't see it. Being out of the loop a long time on Deep Sky objects, do I have these Messier objects correctly identified? Does anyone see Comet Cardinal? Maybe my lens just couldn't reach it.  My bigger question is for those that are more experienced and knowledgeble than I : I have an old star atlas called Atlas Coelli 1950.0 I bought it in 1962. The stars that are represented in the atlas don't quite jive with what's on the image, I mean just ever so slight. Is it possible that in the big picture of things in the universe, in just 60 years the position of the stars can change just a bit, or is it just my eyes? Not a big deal, just curious!!

[brianb]

I have an old star atlas called Atlas Coelli 1950.0 I bought it in 1962. The stars that are represented in the atlas don't quite jive with what's on the image, I mean just ever so slight. Is it possible that in the big picture of things in the universe, in just 60 years the position of the stars can change just a bit

Yes, but not enough to be significant, except in the case of a very few stars with high proper motion.

OTOH camera lenses distort to some extent, and so does the mapping of the celestial sphere onto flat map pages.

[Roman White]

It is the portion of the sky where Comet T2 Cardinal is suppose to be visible. I don't see it. (...) Does anyone see Comet Cardinal?

I tried to look at your image...

I can easily see 8m stars and the faintest are below 10.0m. The comet is around 10th mag too, I have some doubt about its visibility here.

on the night of 15 April

yellow line is Apr.15 and it isn't easy to find comet overthere. Can you tell the more precise time (UT)?

Any chance to see higher resolution? (only M38 and nearby)

[Roman White]

There are more than 3 DSOs... 

open clusters: NGC1893 is enough good visible and NGC 1778, 1907 - not distinct but present in the image

[Roman White]

Comet is currently at 8.4m (Chris Wyatt) - so finally it became the brightest comet
I will start to observe it soon

_{(I don't know what is C/2009 E1 Itagaki's magnitude though)}