Comet C/2008 O2 (McNaught) Bright Next Year?

[martinastro]

This object was insert in the NEO-CP on 2008, July 28.6 with the ID code 8O56129. We performed some follow up from different sites: initially we imaged it on Jul. 28.9 with the Skylive-4 (0.3-m, f/6.3 reflector + CCD) scope (near Catania, Italy, MPC#B40). Since the sky conditions were not so good, we were unable to define for sure its nature (asteroid or comet?) so we decided to submit to the MPC only a couple of lines about its astrometric positions.

Afterward we picked it up on 29.1 from the private observatory of one of us (Gustavo Muler, Lanzarote, Spain, MPC#J47): here the stackings obtained through a 0.3-m schmidt-cassegrain + CCD clearly shown the presence of a small compact coma about 12 arcsec in diameter, and a short tail, nearly 30 arcsec long, toward PA 255; the total magnitude of this comet has been measured at 17.7. Then we performed some further follow-up on July 29.3 by means of a 0.25-m, f/3.3 reflector + CCD of the the RAS network (near Mayhill, NM, MPC#H06): here Ernesto confirmed the presence of a small tail about 25 arcsec long toward South-West.

Furthermore we observed it on on Jul. 30.6 with the Skylive-5 (0.3-m, reflector + CCD) scope (Grove Creek observatory, near Sidney, Australia, MPC#E16), obtaining additional astrometry.

According to the currently available orbital elements published by the Minor Planet Center (http://tinyurl.com/6depww), comet C/2008 O2 moves along an parabolic orbit. If the current (preliminary) orbital solution will be confirmed, this new comet McNaught will reach perihelion in 2009 November; at maximum magnitude it is expected to be a pretty binocular object, well placed for northern observers.

The picture of Gustavo Muler is available here (details on image):

http://tinyurl.com/6agyoy

by G. Sostero, E. Guido, G. Muler, J. Piquard, D. Bektesevic and A. Galant

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/

[Roman White]

  It looks very strange to me.

On this page ( http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2008O2.html ) I see that the comet will be 17-18mag. Is that wrong?

[martinastro]

Doesn't look to encouraging does it. The orbit must have been nailed down more accurately since that first post on cometsml. Looks like a no show.

I'm really in the mood for a bright comet...roll one the next great one!

[Roman White]

I'm really in the mood for a bright comet...roll one the next great one!

Something unusual like 17P/Holmes in Oct-Nov 2007 ? 

[martinastro]

Holmes was great, McNaught was spectacular, but I was thinking more along the lines of this guy at a good elongation from the Sun  ...

''GREAT SEPTEMBER COMET OF 1882: This comet is perhaps the brightest comet that has ever been seen; a gigantic member of the Kreutz Sungrazing Group.  First spotted as a bright zero-magnitude object by a group of Italian sailors in the Southern Hemisphere on Sept. 1, this comet brightened dramatically as it approached its rendezvous with the Sun.  By the 14th, it became visible in broad daylight and when it arrived at perihelion on the 17th it passed at a distance of only 264,000-miles from the Sun's surface.  On that day, some observers described the comet's silvery radiance as scarcely fainter than the limb of the Sun, suggesting a magnitude somewhere between -15 and -20!  The following day, observers in Cordoba described the comet as a "blazing star" near the Sun.  The nucleus also broke into at least four separate parts. In the days and weeks that followed, the comet became visible in the morning sky as an immense object sporting a brilliant tail.  Today, some comet historians consider it as a "Super Comet," far above the run of even Great Comets''.



View a list of great comets here...

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070119_ns_great_comets.html

I would actually like to see something like Ikeya-Seki of 1965. What a photograph that woud be!

COMET IKEYA-SEKI, 1965: This was the brightest comet of the 20th century, and was found just over a month before perihelion passage in the morning sky moving rapidly toward the Sun.  Like the Great Comets of 1843 and 1882, Ikeya-Seki was a Kreutz Sungrazer and on Oct. 21 swept to within 744,000 miles of the center of the Sun.  The comet was then visible as a brilliant object within a degree or two of the Sun, and wherever the sky was clear, the comet could be seen by observers merely by blocking out the Sun with their hands.   From Japan, the homeland of the observers who discovered it, Ikeya-Seki was described as appearing "ten times brighter than the Full Moon" corresponding to a magnitude of -15. Also at that time, the nucleus was observed to break into two or three pieces.  Thereafter, the comet moved away in full retreat from the Sun, the head fading very rapidly but its slender, twisted tail, reaching out into space for up to 75 million miles, and dominating the eastern morning sky right on through the month of November.

[Roman White]

Many thanks for the link, Martin. 

Comet brigther than Moon sounds more than breathtaking! it must be the best astronomic event ever! (only meteorite falling would be greater  )
I also want to see something like that. All we need is to use magic to invite a Great comet into our skies