Comet Master

This new comet is finally rising in my evening skies. So, a small effort to recorded it from my backyard....A faint tail is seen...

20150519

Update 20150519 -  A colorful comet.....

One fading...another Rising...

Two comets are currently good evening objects here in my backyard. Comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS is over head and fading as it moves away. While C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy is rising to be in high position near the zenith by late December. This comet is the one to watch it could get as bright as mag 5.0 and show a long dynamic tail.

Update- 20141212  The clouds finally passed and I was able to get a good set of 45sec images. The comet appears green and stellar, not much tail  to be seen here...

Update 20141214 - Tried  to get spectra data using a Star Analyzer 100, the fuzzy part.

update 20141217 - Another go at getting some spectra data, still to close to noise to have any thing definite....

update 20141220 - I can now see the tail in my images with an exposure of 60 secs. A combination of the comet getting closer and it rising higher in my sky.....sum of 14x60 sec  images using the EON 80 mm scope and unmodded canon 450D. processed from raw images.

Update 20141228 - Got some good 60 sec subs and a small group of spectra subs. Here is the result of processing using imagej.

Waiting for Philae..

The Rosetta lander Philae will be heading for a landing in the next few weeks. I wish I could be there for this historic event. So, I found my analogue for Philae while at the beach....

Something to think about, what would it be like , the sights and sounds of an active comet...??
My sandbox Philae lander ( a Gopro)....

Many years ago STEREO A got this close to 67P....8)

Comet C/2013 V5 Oukaimeden

20140922 - This comet is now much brighter than siding spring comet, and is rising in the evening sky. I am just able to see the comet over the fence, when at 25-15 degrees Alt.

update 20140923 - A very different view of this comet from the other side of the sun. Captured in the STEREO HI1B imager from 20140920. Two tail spikes at right angles.

20140926 -  In STEREO  HI1B images of 20140921, the comet gas/ion tail are dynamically affected by passing solar winds...

20140926 - later this day, here is the comet again from my back yard with EON80mm and Canon 450D , exp60sec iso 800 mono.

A comparison between these two comets.

20141003 - The two comets again, there is a third but I could not find it.

C2013A1 approaching NGC362

Another effort in the cold of the evening, the dew and cold eventually beat me. The comet approaches as seen in the EON 80mm using DMK51 imager.

C20131A1 and NGC362

Update 20140830 - A much milder evening, not as cold. And as C2013A1 was passing by 47 Tuc and SMC. I had another go . A small image. I can't seem to get much light out of the EON 80 mm so may be  bigger light bucket?

C2013A1 passing by 47 Tuc

Update - 20140905 - This small comet moving along....

Update 20140906  A little bit closer to Mars.....

update 20140927 - Looking for this comet in current STEREO images is proving difficult, I think I have it in this colored scaled crop from HI2B wide fov.

Comet C/2014 E2 Jacques

I have been trying to stretch my detection limits using the DMK51 and a 26mm kern lens. Imaging with this setup is very easy to deploy  when mounted on the simple AltAz mount I made earlier.

This is a no track, but a drift imaging method. The lens allows a FOV of 15x10 degrees. At an exposure time of about 10 seconds the stars do not trail. Using my custom imaging software I can automatically gather a long sequence of PNG images.
Then using ImageJ to make a registered medium of about 60 images. My lower limits are around MAG ~9 – 10 at a push. But Mag 8 is really about it. So looks like I still need wait for the comet Jacques to warm up a bit more.


Update 20140414 - A clear evening with a beyond three quarter moon. I think I can just about get Jacques to appear after some heavy pixel pushing using ImageJ. Hope it gets a bit brighter.
Here is a cropped section from a 15x10 FOV, seeing down to mag 10. At the arrow very fuzzy..??

Update 20140428 - Got a good break last night. The afternoon southerly breezes slowed to still air. A cool and clear night with good seeing. So popped out the ED80mm and 450d Dslr on the eq6. Alignment was good for 30 sec images stacks of 10 images. Got C/2014 E2 Jacques and a few of the old fave's.:D

Update 20140507 - Another go at this comet, good result with a sum of 10x30sec images.

Comet ISON

Leaving the Sun
Comet ISON now a diffuse object leaving the harsh solar environment. Not much left ...

ISON in SOHO
A couple of views of ISON first fading in SOHO C3 and the new tail reappearing in SOHO C2.
Those with a keen eye will see the ISON gas tail swing away clock wise  the C3 images and persist across the perihelion passage to continue to grow  in C2

A new angle on ISON in SOHO C2

Ground Viewing 20131130
No luck as the comet was not condensed or bright enough, just dusticles and smudges. I could see some thermals when i pushed the pixels around with imageJ.

Update 20131130 ISON gets Hot!
You already know this and much more,but the data lag means we have to wait for the good images.

ISON brightness flares and Encke flys on..

Update 20131129 - Well is was Fryday  for ISON. It has been quite surprising, I'll post images when the good data is publicly available. But you may like to see these two long HI1A sequences.Here are my two avi's , may not load in windows viewer so use quicktime. Log scaled and contrast adjusted to make one pixel bright on ISON nucleus. Shows the tail material better.

STEREO HI1A ISON 20131120-24

STEREO HI1A ISON 20131124-26

A longer sequence 20131120-24
What dynamic features can you see? double click to make the video full screen, looks better..8)
A better long sequence 20131121-22
Logscaled images.

ISON Enters HI1A 20131120
more details become visible due to better imager resolution. Some rotational aspects become apparent,  I think

ISON tail dynamics
more tails interactions in with the solar wind across 20131119 seen in STEREO HI2A

ISON tail dynamics

Make that four
A fourth small comet has appeared in the HI2A FOV. Comet Nevski..
Comet ISON has brightened and is interacting with passing CME material.

CME passing by ISON 20131114

ISON interacts with CME, tail disconnection event 20131114

Three comets in the wind
ISOn, Lovejoy and now Encke are all detectable in STEREO HI2A images from 2013110
ISON showing some elongation. CME materials is passing by, long ION tails are being seen from ground images of all these comets. Encke is also in the FOV of STEREO HI1A showing some tail dynamics.

ISON in the solar wind

  Update 20131030-
ISON has been detected in STEREO HI1B roll data.

Recent images from the ground have seen some tail disturbances of LoveJoy. A CME plume is passing by, more are following.

I tweaked these images and data from the Goddard  and STEREO NASA guys to show where ISON is in relation to the windy inner solar system. You can also see the new Lovejoy comet tracking northwards. The colorful charts shows CME predictions into the future, while the STEREO images are from the past 5 days.

ISON possibilities

This image of comets disrupting or vaporizing as seen from STEREO COR2 image data. Well known Lovejoy is the only one that made it around the corner before failing. A few Kreutz examples are here and a SWAN detected comet. I think there are different events happening in the images. SWAN appears to vapourize while the others appear to disrupt before getting close. These are possibilities for ISON as it get close to the SUN.