Comet Pan-Starrs... Live Watch!

reply to post by Khaaaaaan!!

I'm keeping my eyes open. But we've had a solid overcast.
How early after sunset was it visible?

reply to post by Phage


About 25 minutes after sunset is when I found it. Tommorow it is supposed to be visable for 75 minutes after sunset, and I get clear skies tommorow in south Louisiana..............Yippee

Ive been out for the past 3 nights and cant find panstarrs anywhere. I live on the Island of Bute on west coast of Scotland with a latitude of nearly 56 and have had 3 perfect viewing nights. Unobstructed view of the horizon to watch sunset and hung around for an hour and half each night to find nothing. I know tonight the new moon was directly beside panstarrs but i didnt even see that. Is my Northerly latitude of 55.8 a factor in why i cant get a view of it and when would be my best viewing opportunity. Many Thanks.

reply to post by RobertDurrant


Welcome to ATS Robert.

Your latitude should not be a major factor. Between you and the South coast of mainland UK there would be around 4-5 degrees difference in height above the horizon, so it would only be a tiny bit more difficult to spot Panstarrs because of this, but you should still be able to if you are looking out to sea and have a clear horizon.

However, it's not that easy to see simply because the sky is still quite bright in that direction, and Panstarrs is relatively dim.

It would probably be best to try and find it using a good pair of binoculars (10x50 if you have a pair), and carefully scan that part of the sky. Do you have Stelarium installed? If not, install it (see my post above), check when Panstarrs is 10 degrees above the horizon for your location. Note that time down. Then when you go out to look for it, use your outstretched fist (vertical orientation) to measure 10 degrees above the horizon. Then scan along at that height and you should find it. Better yet, if you have a laptop - take it with you when you go out.

I observed it earlier on today, and it was virtually impossible to spot with the naked eye. I could only just see the Moon at first, and it was significantly brighter than Panstarrs was at the time. It was easy to see once it got to around 5 degrees, which is when it disappeared behind a cloud bank in the distance, and just before I spotted Panstarrs!

Anyway, hope you manage to catch it. Good luck!

PS. Nice location you are in there!

reply to post by Khaaaaaan!!


thanks mate... brilliant image regardless
so the fables are true lol


consider yourself lucky... i didnt see it

i knew where to look but not when


hopefully i can see tonight

reply to post by FireballStorm


Hi there many thanks for your reply. I was out again tonight for a fourth perfectly clear night which is absolutely unheard of here on the West Coast of Scotland lol. Unfortunately i spent another hour and half in the freezing cold without seeing this Comet. Very frustrating. The Stellarium software you recommended is a fantastic tool but i ( and my sharper eyed daughter) still couldn't see it. Im relatively new to stargazing and i own a Celestron Astromaster AZ70. Fantastic scope but even it couldnt find it tonight. Im beginning to lose faith in finding this Comet and i keep my fingers crossed that Comet ISON holds together for its trip round the Sun in November.

Thanks for your time and Kind regards,
Robert Durrant.

P.S The Isle of Bute is a stunning part of the world when the Sun is shining lol

reply to post by RobertDurrant


You are not alone Robert. It seems a lot of people have had trouble finding it. Both me and my partner failed to find it on the 13th, but there was more cloud to deal with than the night before.

If your Celestron has a narrow field of view, it might not be much use for finding the comet compared to a 10 x pair of binoculars.

I hope the weather holds out for you so you can have another go. If you do find it, you should get a good view of it through the Celestron.

Good luck!

reply to post by RobertDurrant

If you have a photo camera you can try to take a long exposure photo to see if it appears somewhere on the photo, that's what I would do.

Originally posted by ArMaP
reply to post by RobertDurrant

 

If you have a photo camera you can try to take a long exposure photo to see if it appears somewhere on the photo, that's what I would do.

Hi Armap/ RobertDurrant

To be honest from the pictures I have seen it's so small you need around a 300mm lens to get something worthwhile then you have similar problems finding it you can add it to stellarium then you will get coordinates for it.



That's an image from stellarium for today with the atmosphere switched off sun just setting I am not a great distance from you (RobertDurrant) in Scotland.

If its clear most people are waiting 25 mins or so after sunset to help see it.

Hi there many thanks for all your comments. Its been raining here today ( back to normal for here lol) but as i type a shaft of sunlight has broken through a hole in the cloud so fingers crossed it clears and i can go back out again tonight. If only we could turn the atmosphere off for real like you can with Stellaraium lol. Il post again tonight with any news.

I'm in Belgium, the comet should be visible in about 1/2 hour over here...
Gonna try to shoot some pictures (read : wife with her fancy camera)

Regards

Once again too much cloud here - there were breaks in it yesterday but still couldn't see anything even with binoculars.

Sadly it's turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and is only just a naked eye object even with the right conditions.

Hopefuly ISON will be better!

No chance of seeing it tonight. Absolutely pouring it down here on Bute.

Yeah. Wasn't much point even trying here. Wall to wall cloud!

I was finally able to photograph comet Pan-Starrs, although I didn't see it.

I did like I said in a previous post: I pointed the camera to where I thought it would be and tried a long (16 seconds) exposure. After the third attempt, thinking that it was probably already gone from my view and the camera's battery was dying, I went back inside (it was cold outside) and looked at the photos I had taken.

This is what I found on my last photo.
(click for full size)


This is the first time I see (even if only through a photo) a comet.

reply to post by ArMaP


i can just make it out

what a lucky shot....

peace

reply to post by ArMaP


Well done ArMaP - great shot


Better than my first ever shot of a comet (comet Holmes), which just looked like a fuzzy-dot surrounded by nothing but black!

I still need to process my Pan-Starrs shots from nearly a week ago...