A New Comet In Cassiopeia!

[martinastro]

I can't see the image Roman, any chance of a re-post? 

[Roman White]

Michael Jäger's image from April 7th
(re-uploaded via Tinypic)



and a trajectory for a longer period (April-May 2009):


P.S. Note that it passes now across the same area where 8P/Tuttle was in Dec.2007. But the last one was quickly heading southwards, and the new one will stay circumpolar until late May - early June, while slowly moving to SE - towards the Sun (minimal elongation 1.5deg. in July)

[martinastro]

Thanks Roman. That's a beauty!.  Yi-SWAN also passes below the double cluster making for a nice wide field photo opp 

Here's an article from Sky & Telescope magazine...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/resources/proamcollab/astroalert/42672257.html

[Roman White]

Thanks for the useful link, Martin

On Saturday evening, April 11th, the comet passes just 0.4° south of Schedar (α Cassiopeiae), so they'll be in the same low-power telescopic field.

by the way,

The proper pronunciation of the name " 이 " in South Korea is "E" as in the letter in English -  [i:]
(...) Although in North Korea the name is is still spelt as "리" pronunced as Lee
(...) The name is sometimes also transliterated as Yi (...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_%28Korean_name%29

(I had some problems transliterating it in Russian, English transliteration isn't much clear too)

[jgs001]

Thanks for the info, and good luck everyone. I can't see Cassie this time of year... She's hiding in the trees...

[jjb]

Observed comet last night in the big binos it was a wispy patch with a greenish tinge to it below the bottom star in the w of cassie it was good to finally track this one down.


jonathan.

[martinastro]

Congratulations Jonathan!. I have been hampered by street lights these last two nights. Maybe round 3 this evening. Good luck with your future observations. 

[Roman White]

Now I understood that circumpolar not always mean easy.   I made my first attempt to find it on Apr.11 evening (21:30 EEST) with 20cm refractor at Poltava gravimetric observatory.

The comet was only 20' S from alpha Cassiopejae, also (as C/2008 T2) in a Milky Way area rich with stars.

The altitude was only 18^oN and some haze was quite noticeable (NELM<4.0). The stellar ML (telescope) was 12.0m. Possibly there was something very dim and hazy (noticed by me & other observer) but it was as good as a result of imagination  
IMHO the comet was not brighter than 9.0m.