[BAA Comets] C/2017 S3 PanSTARRS

[Nick James]

Mike,

I guess that seems like a reasonable approach but visual observers might 
want to comment. Many thanks for keeping this comet under observation.

I manage to image it again last night in very poor conditions. After a 
clear day clouds and thunderstorms arrived just after C/2017 S3 cleared 
my local horizon. This stack of 4x60s is all I could manage. The sky was 
very bright due to the near full moon and low altitude and the 
transparency was poor so there is no point trying to determine a 
magnitude but the comet is clearly a very diffuse object now. The centre 
of the debris cloud is quite some way behind the position predicted by 
the current MPC orbital elements (shown by the blue box on the attached).

Nick.



On 26/07/2018 10:43, mike.collins12 at tiscali.co.uk wrote:
> Hi Nick !
> 
> Unable to see 2017 S3 in 4" refractor then switched to 10" S-C as comet had
> moved
> sufficiently but by then it was too light. That was on July 25 00:36-01:47 UT.
> So I spent a lot of time on this one observation.
> 
> Not sure how to report a negative observation unless one assumes that the comet
> is the same coma diameter as previously seen and do a magnitude estimate of the
> faintest star defocussed to the same degree and unable to be detected.
> 
> 21P observations continue but the bright Moon and hazy sky causing problems.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Mike
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