Lovejoy caught on widefield

[Paul Evans]

Well I awoke just before 0400 this morning. The sky was very hazy but I consulted Starry Night and aimed the camera below and slightly to the west of Vega and took just two shots, not expecting either to be much good, but here is Comet Lovejoy (C2007 E2)! Sulafat and Sheliak are to the upper left of the shot.



Clear skies,

Paul.

[pook]

Paul,
Great image, well done!
Kind regards
Pook

[Administrator]

Nice one Paul, always good to get some comet pics posted! Robert.

[Paul Evans]

Got up at 0340 this morning to find that Lovejoy seems to have faded away into almost nothing. Same settings as Friday night but only a very faint smudge - this located with Starry Night which reckons mag 8.7, but this much less - there are clear stars at 9.5 which are much brighter.



Clear skies,

Paul.

[Administrator]

Thanks Paul, that's a nice illustration of the changing brightness of the comet made with real observations, although I am really struggling to see anything in that last image

[Paul Evans]

There really isn't much there Robert, just a very faint smudge. The position is determined from Starry Night, and there is something there that isn't shown as anything else which shows that it has faded away.

Comet expert Martin McKenna is here now and will no doubt be able to tell us more

Clear skies,

Paul.

[martinastro]

Great images Paul and congratulations on the getting the first two and ONLY images of Lovejoy from this country as far as I am aware of. The fading is very obvious between the two images and what a difficult catch it was with a bright Moon in the sky. - full credit to you!

[Paul Evans]

Hi Moonbeam and welcome :-)

There's a starchart showing the progress of Lovejoy here...

media.skytonight.com/images/Comet_Lovejoy_XL.gif

A guy called "Phoenix" on IFAS has taken an excellent shot of the comet which you can see here...

www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6435

A much more impressive photo than mine of course, though mine came first :-)

In reality what you'd see through binoculars or a small scope is closer to my photos than Phoenix's. That's a very heavily processed image taken with a CCD camera much more sensitive than the eye and not even a 12" Dobsonian would afford that kind of view.

Hope that helps!

Paul.

[Paul Evans]

Ah yes, I see where the confusion arises. On the second shot the Comet is the v faint fuzzy between two stars. Comets are by nature slightly fuzzy while stars, because they're bright and at vast distances really are much more of an approximation to a single point.

Clear skies,

Paul.

[johnmc9929]

Got to observe comet Lovejoy (C2007 E2) last night for the first time at 0025UT, by which time it was almost but not quite at the zenith. I located it about 3° from Rastaban (278) in Draco, and 1° from Alrakis (49). The comet looked somewhat diffuse but had a slightly brighter central condensation almost star like in appearance. I made it magnitude 9+ with no tail visible. It did however; show a pale green colour which was very evident the longer I had it in view. I used the ETX 90mm with a 26mm eyepiece, but when I knew exactly where it was I was then able to see it with the Meade 10x50 binoculars using averted vision. I could hardly take my eyes off it!

BTW I use the star magnitudes with the decimal point removed!

[Paul Evans]

Well spotted John - I had a look around with the binos and took a couple of shots with the camera but still couldn't get a positive fix.

Also had a good look across the northern horizon for any signs of NLCs but no dice as yet, and had a look out the window at 0330 by which time it was actually starting to become light, so it seems the window of real darkness is now vanishingly small!

Clear skies,

Paul.

[Administrator]

Hi moonbeam, Welcome to the forum! Good luck trying to see the comet, it's a pity that it's just a 'tiddler' , wait until a good one comes along, you'll be blown away! I have not seen Comet Lovejoy myself but what you will be looking for is a cloudy smudge amongst all the other pinpoint stars. Don't think that you will see it like in the photos because the eye is not as sensitive as a long exposure on a camera. Robert.

[martinastro]

Good observation John and I agree fully with your magnitude estimate. Aperture effect is causing a slight variation on mag, coma size and D.C. I seen it last night also and done a few sketches (see other comet thread).

Hi Moonbeam

Here is a chart which may be helpful to track down the comet...

www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/2007_E2.gif

Look for a grey patch of light, it won't be star - like but rather an extended faint object. Make sure your eyes are fully dark adapted and use a low power eyepiece in your telescope which will give you a wide field. This will increase contrast and make detection much easier. Try a 26mm or 32mm.