BAA circular - Comet Encke is now visible in binoculars

[Rick]

Comet Encke is now visible in binoculars, at least from a dark sky site.  The comet is very large and diffuse and hence does not show up well in large telescopes.  By contrast in binoculars it is a relatively easy object.  I observed it from Cambridge with the 0.30-m Northumberland refractor x185 on October 27.01, making it a very difficult 12.4, with a 1.4', DC1 coma. Observing with 20x80 binoculars from outside Cambridge on October 27.94 I made it 9.9, with a 4.5', DC3 coma.  It was an easy object in 25x100 binoculars. The comet will continue to brighten during November and may reach 6th magnitude in early December.  The comet is visible in the early evening and the moon will be out of the way from mid-week until November 27.  The Section web page at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds will give updates on comet Encke and other comets as available.

Jonathan Shanklin
Director, Comet Section

[Mike]

Can anyone tell me what part of the sky this comet is in right now please ?

[Rick]

Try http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/#ephems

[Whitters]

Cygnus at the mo. For finder chart see
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0002P/2003.html

[Whitters]

Mike here in Encke for 15/11



[ This Message was edited by: Whitters on 2003-11-15 20:38 ]