Comet NeoWise

odyssey06 wrote: »

Newbie question - anyone see this yet with binoculars \ naked eye?

A RECENTLY DISCOVERED comet has become visible to the naked eye and can be seen in the sky over Ireland. The NEOWISE comet, named after the telescope that discovered it, brightened to reach visibility as it approached the sun.

https://www.thejournal.ie/comet-of-the-century-5145735-Jul2020/

Could see it with naked over at Tramore and also in Waterford City.

taken from the quay in Waterford City tonight

I headed out late for the noctilucents at 1 and was not expecting to see the comet but it was there in the north. I could just about see it coming up to nearly 4 because the clouds where so bright and it was in the middle of them. once that happened very hard to see. By that stage was more north east bordering on east north east

North, very low in the sky. I assume the orange blob is Jupiter.

Clear skies here just east of Tuam, comet is visible almost directly north, about 10 degrees above the horizon. Not completely dark but the tail really stands out using binoculars. My S10 in nightmode managed to capture a decent shot (not as nice as spookwoman's mind you). Stellarium is a good app to help you find it.

This link may help to locate the comet as it moves increasingly towards an evening apparition within the next week (it should remain a dawn and dusk object for a while and apparently an all-nighter if you're far enough north, it likely gets rather close to the northern horizon at some point though).

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/anticipation-grows-for-comets-neowise-and-lemmon/

They point out in the article that the comet is gradually going to lose intrinsic brightness but gain apparent brightness due to separation from the horizon. That may be more relevant to U.S. readers who are stuck at lower latitudes than yourselves (and me).

If you're heading out any night soon to look, the dots on the sky map provided would be close to 0100h IST positions on the dates mentioned, and if you're looking in the late evening, just assume the position is very slightly to the right of what's shown for the approaching midnight (example, you're looking on evening of 15th July, the position you need to check is 16 July 00z which is just after your viewing time of perhaps 15 July 22z, one hour difference for summer time means 22z is 2300h local time.)

If you're trying to view it in the pre-dawn skies, apparently it's well off to the left of much brighter Venus, would say look north-northeast for it and use Capella and the second brightest star in Auriga as guideposts (see sky map).

I just got in from viewing it, best around 0245h local time before much sunrise glow began to overcome it, quite easy to see without binoculars but of course more impressive in the binocs. Would say it is third magnitude about equal to the faintest of the seven primary stars in Ursa Major (which you can see off to the left of the comet for comparison). That "faintest" is only a bit fainter than the rest. My view here is a bit restricted by hills on the northern horizon, without those it would have been quite high above the horizon but where I was just a bit over the flank of the hill (which is 300 metres higher than my elevation here).

Also in view this morning, waning crescent of the Moon between Venus and Mars, both of which are very bright, and of course Jupiter and Saturn setting in the southwest. Aldebaran is quite close to Venus. Looks like a rendezvous of Venus-Aldebaran with the moon this time tomorrow, might go back out for that.

The comet should make its way into evening sky viewing soon, I haven't got a very good view to the northwest without a long walk. By the 22nd it gets entangled with bright stars in Ursa Major (not in the primary seven but lower down, the bear's legs basically). Before that it is cruising through fairly empty skies with faint stars of the constellation Lynx which I could only see in binoculars even in near darkness. Those are closer to fifth magnitude anyway, by the time you find those you'd have seen the comet (the tail was quite easily seen naked eye too, at least the portion within a lunar diameter of the nucleus, a longer tail emerges through binoculars).

Not sure how many more days of decent viewing are left before it gets too far from the Sun to produce the goods, might be only 3-4 days left before the inevitable fade-out begins.

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Hoping to take a look at NeoWise tonight from Dun Laoghaire or Sandycove Green, roughly what time and what direction should we be looking in? The website for it is far too high tech and I'm totally lost trying to interpret it

NNW to NNE 23:30 - 03.:30 but not likely to see anything with clouds

https://www.windy.com/-Clouds-clouds?clouds,53.318,-0.637,5

Aye it is brutal! Snapped this one Saturday morning.



Panorama from Sunday

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Now it's quite easy to find in the late evening too, I think it got a bit brighter in the past 21 hours having just seen it to my NNW. Basically for evening viewing, my earlier guide won't totally work because the guide stars in Auriga (Capella and mate) are not above the horizon and the whole panorama is tilted around, you have to start from the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and work down to the right from its bowl towards the northern horizon. You should find the comet along that path and it's considerably brighter than anything between the Big Dipper's bowl and the horizon.

By 0100h it would be due north with tail pointing straight up, and at 0300h follow the info I posted yesterday.

Quite a sight in binoculars, somewhat faint to naked eye viewing unless you have entirely dark skies.

It has been getting dimmer since the 2nd or 3rd of July when it reached perihelion. It will continue to get dimmer as it moves away from the Sun. It may be that it had less Airmasses to cut through.

Bit more detail tonight showing a double tail

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Beauty! What lens and settings did you shoot with? Looks about 300mm anyway, I've a similar image without the double tail (stock canon lens 75-300mm) looking into getting a better telephoto lens.

Sigma 70-300 macro Canon 750d. Iso 3200. 75 images stacked ðŸ˜

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Oh, this lens is fairly similar to the canon kit lens. Can I ask was it a stacked video or 75 shots? Where you able to see the comet on liveview if video?

Have tried to use video on the 1100d to stack but cant see anything when shooting the night sky even a full moon is very dim, no idea how to change these video settings.

75 seperate images one after another stacked with deep sky stacker. You might be able to see the video on live video if you have a lens that does f1.8 or f2.8

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Oh nice that must have taking a good while, short frames or longish exposure? did you use any trackers or were you manually adjusting the position. I've a 50mm f1.8 will try it tomorrow night looks like there will be a bit of a break in clouds around 2-3am. Sunday/Monday looks like it will be completely clear.

Just messing around with Magic Lantern there seems like I might be able to change settings for video this way but the noise on the screen/video on 1100d is horrendous.

Feck that too much like hard work 😂. Point and left clicker on lock. 4 sec exposures no adjustments

mossie wrote: »

North Cork on mobile so pretty happy with this.

That's unreal for a phone picture! :eek:

This Last image is an enlargement of the comet head to show how incredibly green it is. White balance was set to daylight. These are from last night - 17-7.

It's so nice to live somewhere with fairly dark skies and to have a pair of Fujinon 14x40 image stabilising binoculars to hand.
(14 times magnification)

Using the binoculars, the tail extends for an incredible distance, far more than is apparent in the photos.

i thought it was supposed to be clearer this weekend/next week as it's closest to earth? could barely see it last night in clear skies yet it was easily visible last week.

bb12 wrote: »

i thought it was supposed to be clearer this weekend/next week as it's closest to earth? could barely see it last night in clear skies yet it was easily visible last week.

I live in the Midwest and there has hardly been a gap in the clouds these last two weeks, so unfortunately the closest approach time probably won't coincide with clear skies, in my experience.

Duff wrote: »

What phone/settings? :eek:

Oneplus 7T using Gcam in astrophotography mode.

nthclare wrote: »

I'm thinking of viewing it this evening,the sky in Clare is clear enough.

Has anyone an idea of where it'll be, I'm a novice astronomer.

I was thinking maybe Black Head in Co Clare

North north west after sunset veering northward as the night progresses. The stars in the handle of the big dipper roughly point to it and it's past the ladle part.

Have a look at the pic I took last night with it just above the trees, you can see where it is in relation to the big dipper in that shot.

What app would you suggest I use to check the location from where I am?

longgonesilver wrote: »

Do you know which way is North

Yes.. but not familiar with the constellations and where exactly to look. Never mind. Thanks anyway.

megatron989 wrote: »

Tonight looks to be a good night to have a look, not sure where I'll go to get away from the light of Dublin but I am willing to drive to get to a darker area. Maybe try inland and keep Dublin to my east. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm in north Wicklow so any tips on good spots to park up will be greatly appreciated.

I was hoping to get to Termonfeckin beach tonight but didn't pan out. Laytown was also on the cards. Anywhere north of Dublin would be better than Dublin though. With Wicklow you're looking into Dublin. There's some great sky to be had in Wicklow though just not to the North of it.

Tails lot stronger tonight