Comet PANSTARRS, Anyone else seen it yet? Options

[Stu]

ISON is months ahead, but there's a comet in the sky right now. PANSTARRS is fainter, and smaller, a lot less impressive than we all hope ISON will be (and a lot less impressive than we hoped it would be itself) but it's still well worth looking for. I finally managed to see it from here in Kendal last night. Full report, with pics, on my blog if anyone would like a look...

http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/comet-panstarrs

[mcaplinger]

Saw it from San Diego last night. Not a naked-eye object for my aging eyes, but easy enough in binoculars.

[Drkskywxlt]

Nice picture, Stu! I saw it last night. Was barely naked-eye visible in my light polluted suburb, but easily seen with binoculars.

[Gladstoner]

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[Greenish]

Saw it Tuesday night and again tonight from a rooftop in Washington DC. Lucky to have some really clear evenings, was excited to see the wedge-shaped comet with the whitish-yellow bright tip, from about 8-10 degrees right down almost to the horizon. Used 7x50 binocs and it was easy to find with the moon as reference. Was ever-so-slightly visible naked eye if you knew where to look and averted the vision just a bit.

[DFinfrock]

Yes I saw it in a suburb of Dallas. Even with binoculars I would have had a hard time spotting it, without the guidance of the moon two nights ago. But once I knew where to look, I spotted it the next night, too. But too much light pollution here for naked eye visibility.

[nprev]

Unusually enough for LA, been clouded out in just the wrong spots on the two nights I've been able to try (including tonight.)

[CosmicRocker]

Stu: That's a pretty good picture. I'd be pleased if I could capture one as nice with the equipment I have. I've been in light pollution until yesterday, so I didn't even try to look for it until I got home tonight. I easily found it with 8x50s, but I had to wait longer into the twilight than I was expecting to. I live in a reasonably dark area and I would describe the comet as quite dim. (By the way, I am trying to support the International Dark-Sky Association.) Check out their site. It's loaded with great information.

Saw it from San Diego last night. Not a naked-eye object for my aging eyes, but easy enough in binoculars.

I can't believe you saw it in San Diego. How's your light pollution there? I can relate to the aging eyes thing. After finding it with binos, both my wife and I thought we might, quite, possibly be seeing it when looking in the proper direction. Curiously, instead of finding the brightest image by somewhat averting my eyes, it seemed to me that my best attempts at a naked-eye observation concluded that the axial view was most successful.

Saw it Tuesday night and again tonight from a rooftop in Washington DC. Was ever-so-slightly visible naked eye if you knew where to look and averted the vision just a bit.

Washington, DC...are you kidding me? Ok, now I am beginning to suspect that this comet may have experienced a flare, or eruption, or burp before I was able to get back to reasonably dark skies.

Yes I saw it in a suburb of Dallas. Even with binoculars I would have had a hard time spotting it, without the guidance of the moon two nights ago. But once I knew where to look, I spotted it the next night, too. But too much light pollution here for naked eye visibility.

I watched the moon for several hours as I drove back to Texas, trying to squint the comet without an inkling of success while cleaning the windshield.

Dallas...? Alright, I quit. This has got to be a cruel joke, or a freak of nature.

[akuo]

Dark skies don't really matter with this comet at the moment, as it is so close to the Sun on the sky. When the comet sets under the horizon it still twilight. As long as there are no close streetlights or similar in direct view, seeing the comet naked eye should be possible anywhere. The comet is moving away though, so the situation will change in a matter of days, as it moves to darker skies but also dims at the same time.

Here's my photo of the comet from last evening:

[Stu]

Another great viewing session tonight...

[Greenish]

Washington, DC...are you kidding me?

Have to agree with akuo here -- because it was at twilight I was surprised how little adjustment my eyes needed to see the comet fairly bright in the binoculars. Using the crescent moon to find it was key for me. The light pollution is bad for sure. But we did have a few really clear nights this week - the sky wasn't even yellow! I usually have a hard time seeing mag 5.5 stars with the 7x50s but with the nearly new moon and the clear sky I saw some 7.0 ones on Thurs. I also got lucky in that I had a space between taller buildings where I could see to the horizon in the west from my rooftop.

[CosmicRocker]

That's an excellent photo of Pan-STARRS, Antti.

If I am understanding you and Greenish correctly, you are saying that light pollution does not matter in this case because the comet is already bright enough to be seen in spite of the fact that we are looking at it in twilight and quite near to the horizon. I guess that makes sense to me in one way, but I would have expected that the back-scattering of photons by the atmosphere would be an additive thing, and that the contrast between the comet and the background would be reduced proportionately by the quantity of light going up into the sky.

Regardless, I am happy to to be able to see any comet that comes around. I am really enjoying the speculation about ISON's arrival this
Fall.

Let us all pray...

[grobibaer]

Just to add another big city observation:

From the center of Munich on Friday 15th. Sun elevation -11 deg.
Easy in 10x50 with a nice short tail. With naked eye barely visible.

[Stu]

Dark skies don't really matter with this comet at the moment, as it is so close to the Sun on the sky.

With respect, akuo, I don't think that's true. The difference between viewing PANSTARRS in a dark sky or from a light polluted location is quite stark. It's the difference between just seeing the comet as a star-like object in the sky, mentally putting a "Ah, that's it, ok, seen it now" tick next to it after hearing about it for so long, and *really* seeing it, i.e. detecting the gentle curve of the tail and seeing the lovely yellow-gold hues of the comet.

If you're restricted to viewing the comet from a light polluted location, then obviously you just make the best of a bad job. Look for it, find it, have a look at it through binoculars. But if you can escape the lights, everyone, please, do so. PANSTARRS might not be a Great Comet like Hale-Bopp, McNaught or Lovejoy, but it is very pretty in binoculars, is a lovely colour, and from a dark sky site is visible to the naked eye. And a naked eye comet is always something to make the effort to see, to enjoy, and to celebrate.

[akuo]

I suppose light pollution does work as an additive, but so far the most significant light pollution by far has been the twilight for now. Observers try to estimate the magnitude of the comet, but on a comet so close to the horizon it is very difficult. Taking into account the extinction effect of the atmosphere, the estimates of Panstarr's magnitude lately have been in the 0 .. 1 mag range, some even into the negative magnitudes (http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html), with those sort of numbers, it is more understandable why the comet is visible in the twilight and in light polluted areas.