Comet Panstars 12th March

[philjay]

A break in the clouds this evening gave me a chance to head to the west of the village where there is a superb clear 180 degree western horizon. I parked the van in an entrance to a field so it gave me a little protection from the wind and started scanning with my trusty 9x63 low light Inpro binos at about 18:45.

 

There was still some low cloud in the west but by my reckoning using last months S&T finder chart for Panstars the comet would be clear of that. Eventually a superb thin crescent moon became visible, not seen it this thin for years, lovely sight. This gave me a good datum for locating the comet so I started to pan slightly south with a bit of elevation. Then as the skies darkened a little more the comet popped into view at about 19:10hrs.

 

The comet showed as a small streak with a definite coma plus a discernible tail fanning out in teh oppossite direction from the suns position. The tail that was visible to me at this time wasnt very long but a bit more darkness would make all the difference, unfortunately I managed another 10 minutes before a low level cloud bank covered it.

 

Not much of a sighting but I got it whehey   Lets hope as it gets a bit higher we get a chance to see and possibly image it.

[+Bino-viewer]

Well done on spotting it. I was driving from Notts to Derby this evening & looked for it (and the moon) but didn't see it 

Will try again this week. Did you see the comet naked eye, or was it a binocular only object ?

Theres a lovely image of it on the Nasa website, with the Parkes radio telescope in the foreground.

[philjay]

No Rob it was binos only, very small, probably with a bit more dark or to younger eyes it would have been visible. I shall take a look at that image ta

[Guest Eddy]

Nice one Phil, gaps in the cloud closed up just as the sun set, apparently 13th-16th will be best times to view it

[Daz Type-R]

Fantastic Phil nice one, I really hope I get to see it.

[BAZ]

Nice one Phil, that's you and Ibbo who has bagged it so far. Iam hoping for a look at it tonight.

[catman161]

Congrats guys-I was hoping to head somewhere with clear western horizon tonight but forecast has changed considerably to yesterday so will keep an eye on it throughout today. Current forecast is for skies to clear at 3am in leicester!!

Edited March 13, 2013 by catman161

[Guest]

I haven't seen it yet. I couldn't see the Moon either last night.

[philjay]

@Phil, the moon was incredibly thin, I could only just see it once I knew where it was.

@Felix, get them 25x100s on it, that will do the job nicely, wish Id still got them now :-)

[Guest]

I've "bagged" it twice but neither view was that convincing and I needed binoculars.

[+RonC]

I got it Wednesday evening (13th) from my front lawn with my 20x80 bins on a tripod. As Phil says, the Moon was the reference point and '2 fists' below and slightly North and there it was ! Good fan-shaped tail and I only realized it's speed when a tree branch came into view and became a reference point. It's very fast indeed!

No chance of a photo but the wife enjoyed seeing it!!