C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

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WCGucfa
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C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by WCGucfa »

The night of July 22nd at first was promising. It looked like it was going to stay clear long enough to search for
the asteroid turned comet, and perhaps actually find it at a tough but respectable 12th magnitude.
I was really tired and didn't look forward to carrying the Antares out to the yard (I swear, carrying my car would have been easier).
Fortunately, the thought of missing getting a shot of the Damocloid really bugged me, and after a long fight with the telescope from
H- E- double hockey sticks, that wouldn't align with Polaris until it sufficiently exhausted me to the breaking point, I started the hunt.
My mapping program placed the comet in an easy position in Bootes. I parked the telescope and looked out the porthole. Explanation: In
order to keep me awake and interested, I like to make believe I'm in a spacecraft looking out the window when I comet hunt.
Surprise! I found the faint stars that matched my map field and the adrenaline started pumping. I also started taking exposures.
Nothing in the images looked like a fuzzy snowball but I knew I was close and the real hunt would begin in the morning when I could look
at all the shots. The previously visible Milky Way had disappeared in the ever-increasing murk, so I crossed my fingers and shut it down.
The next morning, I realized that my camera seemed to have been pointed way out of the field where my mapping program had predicted UQ4 should
have been. Even worse, the images looked as murky as the sky actually was, and the poor alignment problem I started off with was now slapping me in the face.
As I came to the end of my images, I noticed there were two fields where I had actually moved the scope slightly out of the original area, just in case my maps were a little off. Upon closer inspection it turned out this is where I should have been in the first place...GAAA!! but GOOD!
Key identification components in the map below are the comet, surrounded by a triangle of yellow stars, the lower right hand corner of the triangle being the
star STF 1875 (10.17 mag.). Next identification, the small, brightest star that Catalina almost occults on passing, GSC 3043-254 (13.81 mag.) and close to it at the 5 o'clock position, an even fainter GSC 3043-777 (14.97 mag.) This last star is not visible in the photograph, being too dim. The comet is moving
from top to bottom on the map. It is the magnitude of these three that identifies Catalina. 3043-254 just breaks visibility and 3043-777 is invisible under the existing sky conditions. So, UQ4 gives itself away at a "bright" 12.8 mag.
I apologize for the wordiness of this post! :oops: I'm not good at putting arrows and such on my pics.

July 22, 2014. Bill Gucfa. Photo: Canon T1i, 49 sec single exposure, ISO 3200. Antares 6" refractor. Map is not oriented the same as image. SkyMapPro10
Image

The starry triangle sits high and to the right in the image, getting ready to disappear out of the eyepiece field (24x).
STF 1875, is the brightest corner triangle star.
Note the close "double star" within the triangle, just a little below the two top triangle stars. It's only a temporary view, with the
comet zooming by. The Damocloid is the brighter of the two components.
True, an image only a mother could love, but a historical sight nonetheless!

Image
Last edited by WCGucfa on Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:43 pm, edited 11 times in total.
Comets:40, Best Meteor shwr: Leonids '01, Best Aurora:Oct. '03.
Total.Sol.Eclipse,7/10/72 from Nova Scotia.Annular Sol. Eclipse '94,
Trans.of Venus 2004&2012.,ShoeLevy crash into Jupiter '94.
4/25/66 fireball-9 mag.,SN2011fe,N2012aw,DelphN2013.
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Apollo XX
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Re: C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by Apollo XX »

Nice Bill! That was a tough one!

Mike
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
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WCGucfa
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Re: C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by WCGucfa »

Thanks Mike,

I'm happy, happy, happy that this particular object turned into a comet to become my 36th!!
It's like I have connections or something. :lol: :lol: :roll: :oops:

BG
Comets:40, Best Meteor shwr: Leonids '01, Best Aurora:Oct. '03.
Total.Sol.Eclipse,7/10/72 from Nova Scotia.Annular Sol. Eclipse '94,
Trans.of Venus 2004&2012.,ShoeLevy crash into Jupiter '94.
4/25/66 fireball-9 mag.,SN2011fe,N2012aw,DelphN2013.
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NGC7000
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Re: C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by NGC7000 »

Congratulations on your 36th, Bill. Also enjoyed your reference to the eyepiece as spacecraft porthole. I do the same at times. We are such children of the universe. :lol:

Tom
Tom H
"Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence." - Louis Pasteur
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AndyG
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Re: C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by AndyG »

Bill, congratulations on #36! That was not an easy one to nab but you got it.
Andy
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WCGucfa
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Re: C/2013 UQ4 Catalina Where Are You!

Unread post by WCGucfa »

Thanks guys,

I had enough frames to show movement past the star, but this was my only shot
where the comet image wasn't blown apart from turbulation in the atmosphere.
The Damocloid Gods were with me this night! They also kept the mosquitos away.

BG
Comets:40, Best Meteor shwr: Leonids '01, Best Aurora:Oct. '03.
Total.Sol.Eclipse,7/10/72 from Nova Scotia.Annular Sol. Eclipse '94,
Trans.of Venus 2004&2012.,ShoeLevy crash into Jupiter '94.
4/25/66 fireball-9 mag.,SN2011fe,N2012aw,DelphN2013.
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