Lovejoy "Live"

Astrophotography: share your photos & discuss techniques
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WCGucfa
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:39 pm

Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by WCGucfa »

Here is the last image of Comet Lovejoy I took on 01/17. I call this a "live" shot because this
is what most of us saw when we looked at it through scopes and binoculars from our observing sites.
There is little evidence of its spectacular tail, but still fascinating at around magnitude 4.0.
Which brings a question to mind. After much google-ing, to no avail: what WAS the visual magnitude of Q2's tail?

Do we have to roll up the appendage into a star-like ball with our imaginations and then compare this with nearby stars in
the image? My guess, by my thinking (uh-oh) is that when the comet is at its brightest (i.e. when we could easily see the tail), and judging by what showed up on my 30 second exposures, is
7th magnitude . When it became barely visible with the same timing as the nights went by, I'm guessing the tail to be around 10th to 12th magnitude.
When it failed to be visible at all on my maximum exposure images, which was 30 seconds at 3200 ISO, my guess was a tail 12th and dimmer.
Any thoughts are appreciated. My apologies for making up my own scientific methodology.

Bill G.

January 17, 2015. Antares 152mm, 30s with a Canon T1i, Tungsten WB. West is left, N is up.
Image
Last edited by WCGucfa on Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:18 pm, edited 2 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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Pete
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by Pete »

Couldn't see much from here during last night's flyby but Goldstone captured a really amazing video:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... t=20150127
Pete P.
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mrgizmo65
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by mrgizmo65 »

Thanks for posting Pete, I had no idea that such a thing was possible with an asteroid . I guess with the universe all is possible if you look long and far enough.After this storm clears out of here, viewing should be quite nice(but pretty cold). We have been fortunate here the power is still on , and now we can spend a few days getting all dug out. Stay safe. :P
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Pete
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by Pete »

My CSC http://cleardarksky.com/c/WshngStObRIkey.html?1 shows that Wednesday night will be an observing night if I'm not attending a pre-scheduled meeting. As the article says, a lot of asteroids are binary systems. I've never directly observed anything as a binary though. Given that plus the odd non-spherical shapes, brightness can and usually does fluctuate by about a magnitude.
Pete P.
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WCGucfa
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by WCGucfa »

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Bill G. :lol:

Re: In reference to the second subject of this message.
I was so disappointed the imaging possibilities crashed into a snow drift.

Bill G.
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.
Bruce D
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by Bruce D »

Amazing pete, thanks for sharing it with us
Bruce D
Thuban
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by Thuban »

I was pretty sure that on one dark night I could sorta make out a tail at low mag in my dob with averted vision. with my skies my dob should be able to do 12th magnitude so I suspect that you are correct in saying that the tail is somewhere 12th mag or more.
Mike C
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WCGucfa
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Re: Lovejoy "Live"

Unread post by WCGucfa »

Thanks, Thuban,

I was starting to doubt whether my original post message got through or not.

I'm sure you could see the tail with averted vision; I could too, many times.
There were so many posts saying how dim the dust tail and ion tail were at times, but no
actual visual magnitudes were being stated, except for the coma. I couldn't find anything elsewhere on line.

Thanks for your response!
Bill G.
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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