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Wirtanen


Tweedledee

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I was out from 16:30-19:00 and it was too low.

Tried again after tonights DDAS meet, but clouds scuppered that.

Currently listed as +4.2 mag.

Its sort of just below a point between Rigel and Uranus, Sky Safari tells me.

I will try again tomorrow with the Dob if i get the chance.

 

I had a good session too Pete.

Enjoyed Mars and Neptune and spend an hour on them, looking for Triton as well.

I don't think the seeing was quite good enough, although i had a few maybe? moments......

Also i don't think Triton was in that favourable a position for observing when i checked it.

I may be wrong, and i'm not sure what the orbital separations are ?

 

After all that with the help of Sky Safari and my Telrad i moved on to Uranus.

Its the first time i've had a session and looked at them both in detail.

Its in a nice bit of the sky now, looks a bit like Neptune, and is a much clearer disc.

I will return to it.

 

i did one or two clusters as well, which were nice, then had a look for M1.

Try as i might, i have never seen it from the back yard.

Either i'm looking in completely the wrong spot (i don't think i am) or its

simply invisible with all the light pollution.

 

I saw the ISS coming over and immediately get the Dob on it.

Not too bad through the Bino at 60x.

Very bright, moves very quickly, and looks like a burning 'H' shape

in the wobbly seeing.

 

A good session, although at the start, i was half expecting Mars and Neptune

to be closer together than they appeared.

I guess when you are used to looking at doubles with around 5 arc seconds (or less)

separation etc, 5 arc minutes is actually fairly wide.

 

 

 

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Neptune to the lower right. I think. Its a bit faint.

 

46172009832_3700658b8e_k.jpg

Edited by Bino-viewer
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I forgot all about this comet last night. Saw Neptune and then went in doors, will have another look later if it clears. Looks like you had a night Pete.

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41 minutes ago, Doc said:

I forgot all about this comet last night. Saw Neptune and then went in doors, will have another look later if it clears. Looks like you had a night Pete.

Just a couple of short sessions Mick as I got really cold quickly in that biting wind. But I made to most of it since I remembered precisely where all the objects were after seeing them on Stellarium earlier.

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11 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

Cropped.....

 

45309764165_6363e7ac74_k.jpg

Very nice to see that conjunction recorded like that Rob. ?

 

Give us some parameters please, scope, camera, exposure etc. Just to ease me into it, while I work up to imaging the Cydonia pyramids. ?

 

As you say Rob that separation of 5 arcminutes sounds very close, which it is for 2 planets, but it is actually one sixth of our Moon's diameter! 

 

Edited by Tweedledee
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It was nothing technical Pete at all. Just a bit of fun really.

Dob (300 F4)

Prime focus single image,  1/15s  iso 1600

The camera was my Sony A7 Mk iii

Its fairly new (about 6 months)

Focus was hit and hope.....the Sony has the useful 'focus peek' feature

in Manual, and also has IBIS.

 

I like the Sony A7 series ; this is my second.

I usually use it for daytime photography, but its good at prime focus (usually Lunar / Solar)

 

I also have a Canon 6D, but thats away at present.....

 

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The secondary spikes quite often bother me when using the Dob.

It makes splitting doubles and observing fine planetary detail problematic.

 

Also the mirror clips on OO scopes are seemingly way too large.

I thinkl some modifications are due.

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9 hours ago, Sunny Phil said:

Your reports tally pretty much with mine:

 

https://sungazer127mak.blogspot.com/2018/12/december-2018.html

Yes, glad you found it Phil. ?

Always nice to find a new fuzzy.

 

It really isn't anywhere near the brightness of M42 yet, and can be a difficult object despite the magnitude reported. Perhaps the specified brightness is integrated over the whole thing which did look a reasonable size to me, up to half a degree. I compared the the view in my 8x43 bins with Messier 35 (mag 5.2 and half a degree) which under the poor conditions was just an unresolved fuzzy patch and found both views very similar, but the comet looked fainter.

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Well, Wirtanen is definitely easier to see tonight because the transparency is much better than Friday. Had a good look in 15x70s and it seems like a large pretty even ghostly circular glow.

 

It definitely doesn't stand out anything like the Orion nebula even though it is supposed to be about the same brightness. I'd say more like 6th magnitude.

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On 09/12/2018 at 22:21, Tweedledee said:

Well, Wirtanen is definitely easier to see tonight because the transparency is much better than Friday. Had a good look in 15x70s and it seems like a large pretty even ghostly circular glow.

 

It definitely doesn't stand out anything like the Orion nebula even though it is supposed to be about the same brightness. I'd say more like 6th magnitude.

Spotted last night in 15x70 no mistaking once your on it ,large fuzzy ball 

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1 hour ago, Bottletopburly said:

Spotted last night in 15x70 no mistaking once your on it ,large fuzzy ball 

I didn't see it last night. Do you have an estimation on its magnitude David?

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15 minutes ago, Doc said:

I saw it last night just below Ksi Tau and Omi Tau. It was very faint and I only glimpsed it with averted vision.

It would be nice to have a comet that outshines the Orion Nebula for a change. Doesn't look like this is going to do it now. ☹️

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6 hours ago, Tweedledee said:

I didn't see it last night. Do you have an estimation on its magnitude David?

I’ve no idea on guessing magnitude but I would say 5 like m13 in a 25mm eyepiece at F5 but bigger  brighter than I was expecting , I thought it was big like a big fluffy cotton ball  I read it was 4.5 mag 

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1 hour ago, Bassinghamobservatory said:

I first found this comet on Sunday evening with 10x50 binoculars. Just a fuzzy blob and no clear central condensation. Quite different to imaging: This was with 1100D and 200mm lens at f4, ISO 800 and exposures of 10x 20s and 5 x 30s. Stacked and processed in Pixinsight.

Almost looks like it has a few satellites!

 

That looks great. A superb image of it. ?

 

It also tells me that Stellarium is plotting its path correctly and puts it in exactly that position, but SkySafari puts it a quarter of a degree to the west at the same time.

 

You ought to put that in the imaging gallery as a contender for POTM.

Edited by Tweedledee
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Thanks Pete.

I noticed that the system for uploading images changed but not sure how it is supposed to work.

Graham

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Thats a terrific image Graham.

I'm glad someone on here has seen and enjoyed imaging it with great results.

 

I'm afraid i've not seen it at all.

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Yes, I finally got to look at it at several times last night with my 10x80s, and 7x50s.

It was fairly easy to find because it was triangulated with the Pleiades and Hyades. I was surprised how big it was, though it was a tad faint! But once found, I had no trouble getting straight on it even with passing clouds... this particular ‘cloud’ stood still...

My thoughts went straight back to the last time I saw Halley’s comet approaching in 1986, some months before the general public were really aware. I was using a home made f4, 6” reflector back then ?, (still got it in the loft actually. ?)

It’s great to see a comet! ?

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2 hours ago, Smithysteve said:

Yes, I finally got to look at it at several times last night with my 10x80s, and 7x50s.

It was fairly easy to find because it was triangulated with the Pleiades and Hyades. I was surprised how big it was, though it was a tad faint! But once found, I had no trouble getting straight on it even with passing clouds... this particular ‘cloud’ stood still...

My thoughts went straight back to the last time I saw Halley’s comet approaching in 1986, some months before the general public were really aware. I was using a home made f4, 6” reflector back then ?, (still got it in the loft actually. ?)

It’s great to see a comet! ?

Glad you got it. ?

 

Yes, it is always nice to see a fuzzy where there shouldn't be one, and to follow its progress across the sky. ?

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Great report, Pete.

 

I'm hope to see it with my 20x80s at some stage, but maybe it's gonna be a struggle with the current lunar cycle?

 

I guess we'll (or won't) see.

 

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