103P/Hartley - Naked Eye Comet In October

[John9929]

Thanks Richard! Pity about the fog, you could always head for the hills again

[rjgjr]

Between the fog, a quickly approaching cold front and an extremely bright Moon, I did finally catch one last image of Comet Hartley at 00:08 local time this morning.

50mm 13 sec f/2.8 800 ISO

[markt]

Anyone got a recent update on the comet? 

[brianb]

It's now a morning object, and the moon is a huge nuisance. I did just about see it on the morning of the 24th, despite the bright moon, with 10x50 binoculars. Didn't bother looking on the morning of the 25th. Solid cloud + need to sleep this morning. Tonight looks no better & the Moon is closing in on tghe comet's position, worsening prospects despite the moon's waning phase.

[martinastro]

Looks like a slight chance of a meteor shower from Hartley early Nov...

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/27oct_hartleyids/

[John9929]

Less than ideal conditions but got a shot at Hartley in the early hours this morning while the moon was just about rising. Nice to see that it is still visible this side of full moon. There was quite a lot of very high thin cloud/mist floating across the sky which made it more difficult than it should have been, however still a record.
Taken with the 50mm at f3.2 and 20 secs......I think! That's what loosing an hour does to you!

[DaveH64]

Good to see its still visible, Well caught John. Need to get out again.

[rjgjr]

Very nice photos John, I love the whispy high clouds in the photo. Good to see that Hartley is still looking about the same. I thought it would be much dimmer by now, but I guess the magnitude is about the same, just further away. I might have a couple of nights this week to view, will have to wait and see. Thanks!

[John9929]

Thanks guy's, the only problem now is the fact that you need to wait till the early hours to get it high enough, it's already gone through Gemini and heading down. It will be interesting to see just how long we can follow it before it gets too low. Wish you luck with the weather Richard, it's a horrid day here today

[martinastro]

Good to see new Hartley images John! - you have just lit the fuse for this thread again 

[martinastro]

Just a reminder to be on the alert for possible meteors from comet Hartley over the next couple of nights, the radiant will be in Cygnus.

[John9929]

So this is what 103P/Hartley looks like! Congrats to John Harmon and team at Arecibo!
http://www.naic.edu/~pradar/103P/

[martinastro]

Congrats to the team, that's a stunning radar data set - amazing!!

Saw Hartley easily with the naked eye while storm chasing at the N coast last night, the sky was stunning to say the least and the view in 10x50s was even better, this comet is still putting on a show!. Latest estimates place it at mag +4.5

[rjgjr]

I wasn't expecting to be running outside at 06:45 this morning until I got up and saw that the stars were still shining brightly even with the crescent moon and an ever brightening eastern sky. I was shocked I could still see Comet Hartley naked eye at this hour. So I ran back into the house, put my favorite 50mm lens on and snapped this view of the comet. She still shows very well as Martin said, but I was so surprised to see it this well in this light. She still has as lot more to give and I'll be out the next several mornings if our weather holds. The comet that keeps on giving!

50 mm  10 sec f/2.8 1600 ISO

[martinastro]

Love the image and report Richard  , that was an early catch!, you are so correct with what you said ''She still has as lot more to give'' - that is exactly what I was thinking, never a more true sentence spoken, this comet is certainly worthy of our attention during this dark period. I think it's clear that the niffty fifty is the best lens for comet imaging, I need to add one of those to my collection

I never got any images of Hartley last night, shame on me for not doing so under that stunning black sky, I was distracted though by blue and purple lightning flashing over the N and NW coast which was truly spetcacular. The crescent Moon was gorgeous too and I've never seen Orion look so fine as I did last night.