I am sure everyone knows that comet SWAN is moving towards visibility in the UK sky. I thought I’d set up a thread for postings of first sightings – visual and CCD – by BAA members.
There are indications that it might not be behaving as we might have hoped…
Here you go David. An image from Chelmsford this morning is here. It is not really world-shattering stuff but at least it is visible from here now. Not quite the as good as Rhemann’s image from Namibia.
This is great, thanks. Good to see it has arrived in the northern sky. It is obviously quite a bright object (would you say mag 5 – 6 is about right?) from looking at the stars that are visible in your image. Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of cloud at the NE coast these past weeks, and I haven’t been able to observe for some time. I’m ready with binoculars and a DSLR. The latest images do show a dust tail, which I hope develops further.
David, Thanks. At the moment this is definitely not a comet for the general public to get excited about. I got it again this morning. It was much higher (5 deg vs 2.5 deg) but there was more cloud and haze so the two cancelled out. Picture attached. Bear in mind that this was with a 200mm FL lens so quite a small field of view. The comet is still quite hard to spot.
You were very Lucky Nick. Here beside Gatwick Airport in Crawley. Sky clear at 2300h..Bst 15th Camera set up with Sony SLT 65a and 85m F1.4 lens 16th 0300h Bst thick medium level stratus 0400 Bst still similar so abandoned watch. No break in Clouds until 11.00 Bst which only lasted for a short period. Try again Sunday Morning in hope for better conditions