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Just a plug to observe this comet, as it is now very conveniently placed in the sky for those in the northern hemisphere. Changes night to night.
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Sleeker ion tail when imaged last night. The comet’s hood lends it the appearance of a speeding bullet.
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Gideon van Buitenen has produced a really nice simulation of the comet’s appearance which you can find here:
http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/resources/C2022E3_simulation.gif
It shows the PA of the ion tail swinging around very rapidly over the next few days.
Not much luck with clouds on the Kent coast but I can’t remember the last time when a *bright* comet was circumpolar (from UK). Must be unusual timing and orbital geometry. Hoping for a favourable break in weather over next few days before full moon!
Used Slooh Canary 2 on the night of 27 Jan at 0052 to take this image. Subsequent processing with Affinity PLus.
This Comet is just visible in 10×50 binos here in eastern Scotland.
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Captured this eve (midpoint) 2023-01-28T19:12. Lovely ion tail.
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Development of ion tail into at least three streamers.
MIDPOINT = ‘2023-01-29T20:59:22’ /UT of midpoint of exposureAttachments:
David. Yes the ion tail is very active again. Your images are excellent. Your fast RASA is ideal for this.
Finally had some clear skies tonight and I just made this observation. Using HR3082 as a comparison star, I estimate a Mv~ 5.5
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You guys up in the frozen north have it lucky.
I find it very frustrating that Polaris is only 28 degrees above the horizon from here. Even worse, my fork mount won’t allow pointing at anything above a Declination of 75N or the camera hits the mount. Guess where C/2022 E3 is tonight …
With luck it will be far south enough to give me a chance in a few days but, of course, the moon will then be very near full.
Life, don’t talk to me about life.
Paul
P.S. now the ****ing filter wheel has just packed up and I must go back to the dome to see what needs to be kicked into submission. Almost always a Windoze/USB failure.
Paul – That is why I have never liked fork mounts although the price I pay is meridian flips. The comet was really nice tonight despite the bright moonlight. I get it to be 5th mag now. Here is a picture of my telescope effortlessly pointing near to the pole taken while it was taking the picture in the inset. I don’t get many chances to take a picture like this!
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Yes, we win some and we lose some. I don’t actually lose very much useful sky as Dec +75 reaches a maximum altitude of 43 degrees and a minimum of 13 degrees from here and I don’t much like doing photometry below 30 degrees altitude unless it is really necessary. I have always really loathed meridian flips.
HL CMa was nice and high in the sky here (just to make you jealous 🙂 — there are advantages to having a low celestial pole — until cloud stopped play. 1 made it V=12.33 tonight.
In my experience I would have fork mount any day over a GEM. The problem with cameras and ancillary equipment fouling the mount in the fork design is not a problem for Newtonian or Nasmyth designs or indeed prime focus SC’s like the Celestron RASA . Meridian flips in a GEM are amongst the most common irritations I have with my SC on a GEM. Image attached of my last large Newtonian, oh how I miss it!
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The best compromise, IMAO, is a fork with long enough arms.
Now the disadvantage is that it needs to be much more robust to prevent flexure. I am fairly sure that my fork would be capable with longer arms and is would appear that yours would be too.
All this is way off topic for this place. Perhaps Webmaster could create a new topic in an appropriate place and more the postings there. Please? Pretty please?
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