Panstarrs at last! 29/3

[Tweedledee]

Finally seen it and it was very satisfying. There is something quite exciting about seeing a comet. It has been a long time since I have seen a comet, probably Holmes in Perseus.

 

Had a short but enjoyable observing session last night with Pat, Dan and Martin in Tibshelf.

 

I knew exactly where Panstarrs was from checking Stellarium earlier. Found it fairly quickly in the bright twilight sky in my 10x50s, but it blended in to the background brightness so well that I wondered if I was imagining it. After a few more minutes with the sky darkening slightly is was very obvious. I got the Bresser 152 set up and it really looked impressive in the 14mm ES 100 degree with a 2 degree field at 54x. The tail fanned out more than I had expected and faded out over nearly one third of a degree from the coma. Panstarrs was 4th magnitude and 1.25 AU distant according to Stellarium. Had a look at Jupiter through Pat's SCT and although some good detail was visible, it was just too dazzling without any filtering.

 

So pleased to have seen Panstarrs before it fizzles out. Didn't want to wait another 100,000 years.

[Guest mickymoo]

Sounds like a swell night

Mick

[Brantuk]

Congrats Pete - I saw it too for the first time tonight in a very nice Orion 12" dob - amazing to see something out of the ordinary like that and yes the tail is much longer and more spread than I expected.

[Tweedledee]

Cheers Kim.

 

Would love to see Panstarrs in a 12" dob, especially if it had a 100 degree ep .

 

They are a bit special, since unlike most other fuzzies, they are few and far between, changing shape, size and brightness, have a different starry background every night and are often a bit of a challenge low down in the murk near the sun. You just have to love comets .

[Guest Fluke]

Pete it looked superb in your Bresser - I'm hoping to have a go with 12" Dob tonight