Comet question

[spendrey]

Hello,

Are any of the 3 comets that are currently putting in an appearance (Neat, Linear and Bradfield) visible from our skies?

[Mike]

Not really at the moment as they are too far south. One of them will become visible in the next few months, but by then it will be very dim.

[Whitters]

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3642725.stm

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

Comet c/2001 Q4 (NEAT) should be very visable from about th 10th May for a month or so going from Canis Major to Ursor Major.  Apparently it could get to Mag1.

see http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds for details.

[Mike]

Yup. missed that one. Ran it through Starry Night and it looks like it should be quite spectacular !

[spendrey]

Interesting. In fact May's edition of Astronomy Now gives a nice little chart showing where it will be on certain nights.
I assume that to be able to image it you would need a modified webcam for long exposures?
What magnitude would it need to get to so that you could image it with an unmodified webcam? Or would you then miss out on capturing some of the finer details such as the tail?

[Mike]

I should imagine you would get the head and possibly a bit of fuzz if it gets bright enough, but you would definately need a longish exposure to capture the tail properly. Paul would be your best man to ask that as he has a few comet pics.

[Whitters]

Don't know about a modified webcam, but these can be bright. I would probably try using good old film, and a 15-30 second exposure, about the longest you can give with a 50mm lens.

[Ian]

well if that doesn't sound like a challenge, I don't know what does...

[Rocket Pooch]

Ok glove down I'm up to see what we can do with an SLR, shall we compair results


But wait, does a digital camera fall into this category?

[Rick]

The latest BAA printed circular seems to have had some missing negative signs on positions. The versions of the comet section website should be correct though....

The printed Circular sent to members contains the following errors ...

Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)
The signs indicating whether the declination of the comet is north or south of the celestial equator have been accidentally stripped during the Circular's production. From May 4 the comet is at a southerly
declination during the period of the ephemeris given on page 4. A minus sign in front of the declination value should have indicated this.

Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)
A similar error has occurred in the ephemeris for this comet on page 6. From the start date to May 10, this comet is at a southerly declination.

The cause of this error is still being investigated!

[ This Message was edited by: Rick on 2004-04-22 13:42 ]

[Mike]

Chris, an SLR is an SLR. Whether the light falls onto film or a CCD chip is irrelevant so count me in

Looks like Paula nd Ian have unwittingly started a photo competition (hey that's an idea!).

[ This Message was edited by: Mike on 2004-04-22 11:42 ]

[Rocket Pooch]

Why don't you mention it tonight and see if you can get any other takers then maybe we can look at the results during the June meeting?

I'm positive Malcom, Jim and others would join in.  Maybe even Rick?

[Mike]

Chris i've already PM'ed Paul about it and we will discuss it with the committee tonight. Seems like a good idea to me. Why not make it a regular monthly feature of the meetings whereby the 'photo of the month' is displayed on the projector with the other contenders also?!

[Mike]

Does Rick's post mean the comets ARE south of the equator and not visible?