Comet ISON Options

[djellison]

I'll be honest - I had a tiny insight into what life must have been like for Tombaugh. It took me half an hour to find the comet at all on the images I took 19 hrs apart with the larger T11.

I tried it back in the GRAS days - and decided to try again with a hope to imaging Juno during its flyby later in the year

[Stu]

[Gladstoner]

Has Curiosity imaged any nebulae, clusters, or galaxies in the night sky? That may indicate how ISON may appear during closest approach. The Andromeda Galaxy would be a good comparison.

[TheAnt]

@Gladstoner: The Andromeda galaxy would be just a dot in the image of the MSL camera, and I suspect at the magnitude 3,4 is too faint.

@djellison: Great work bagging ISON there, and yes, the comparison with how Tombaugh searching for Pluto got some merit insofar ISON seem equally hard to spot. As for me I wait until I can use the 10*80 binocs.

[Stu]

Oh yes, the binoc view should be really pretty. I've invested in a new telescope for viewing the comets. Nice and lightweight, nice and portable, should be a doddle getting it up to the castle...

[TheAnt]

@Stu: Light gathering binocs are almost like made for comets but for astronomical purposes not much else. Mine do show Andromeda, the Orion nebula, the Moons of Jupiter and sing of Saturn but that's about it (Don't even consider aiming such at the Moon, else not just the night vision might be ruined.)
That was a nifty solution, and it do address one of the problems for larger telescopes. That they are a pain to move to the observation site.
The one depicted almost made me rant about the advantage of using both eyes, but that's exactly what he had there!

[AndyG]

I love the picture, Stu, but I suspect you'll need to keep four jacks in the boot to steady the "observatory" when you get up there.

Andy

[Gladstoner]

@Gladstoner: The Andromeda galaxy would be just a dot in the image of the MSL camera, and I suspect at the magnitude 3,4 is too faint.

That's a shame. ISON won't be much better during closest approach.

Light gathering binocs are almost like made for comets but for astronomical purposes not much else. Mine do show Andromeda, the Orion nebula, the Moons of Jupiter and sing of Saturn but that's about it (Don't even consider aiming such at the Moon, else not just the night vision might be ruined.)

Don't forget the Milky Way, especially around Sagittarius. It is fascinating with large binocs.

[TheAnt]

@Gladstoner: Oh yes, that's a good idea. I sweep over both starfields and potentially interesting parts of the sky.

While doing so I manage to bag a few more elusive objects, panning that way I get the 'averted vision effect' by not watching directly but using the more light sensitive parts of the eye in the periphery. So I do pick up a few more faint smudges that are 'officially' to faint for 10 * 80's.

Quite some years ago I actually did spot a small (tiny actually) but rather bright comet with a really short tail moved against the starfield like a speedtrain, which were in a location where no known comet should be. Cloudy weather prevented observations for a number of days and I contacted one observatory so that at least someone could claim it - but we lost it. The observatory I were in contact with suggested it had been a sungrazer that broke up - and that might have been the case.

[Gladstoner]

Just a heads up....

Some of the comet aficionados are becoming concerned about ISON's recent performance:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/message/20842

The comet's light curve seems to have been rather flat over the past month or so. As always, the only thing to do is watch and wait.

[Gladstoner]

Mods -

Can the thread title be changed to 'Comet ISON'?

Thanks.

[Gladstoner]

Since the comet will soon be lost to observation as it slips into twilight, I'll place some milestones here to look forward to....

- Now (late May) - ISON will soon be lost in evening twilight. It is currently 3.6 a.u. from the sun.

- Summer - I don't believe the comet will be visible to any of the solar-observing spacecraft; of course I'd like to be wrong.

- Early September - ISON begins to move out of morning twilight. Brightness magnitude estimates can now resume. The comet will be 2.0 a.u. from the sun. The brightness-curve estimates should firm up a bit.

- Early October - ISON will be 1.5 a.u. from the sun. Water sublimation really picks up at this point. It will be interesting to see if or how the comet brightens.

- October 2 - Comet passes close to Mars. If the comet is bright enough by now, the two may be observable in the same wide-field telescopic view.

- Mid-late November - ISON moves rapidly back into morning twilight. If it behaves favorably, the comet should be brightening rapidly at this time. Visual magnitude may be possible almost up to perihelion.

- November 28 - Perihelion. This is when ISON was (is?) to reach "full moon" brightness. Most critical is if the comet survives perihelion. If it does, then we're in for a show, more or less.

- Early December - If it survives, the comet will steadily move out of twilight. It will fade rapidly, but its tail will extend in length as it fades. This is what I'm looking forward to the most.

With the Hubble and SWIFT spacecraft both indicating a solid-nucleus diameter of 4-6 km (3-4 miles) for ISON, there is a good chance that the comet could last at least through perihelion.