A New Comet Is Coming To Town

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Apollo XX
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A New Comet Is Coming To Town

Unread post by Apollo XX »

Howdy Folks,

I was browsing Spaceweather http://spaceweather.com/ when I came across this article about a damocloid (not to be confused with "damn clouds"). Turns out that there's a bunch of these damn-o-cloids http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/damocloid.html flying around out there, and occasionally one turns out to be a real honest-to-goodness live ice spewing comet. The most recent one to do so is about to position itself very nicely for the before-wee-hours observing group, of which I admit without shame to be a part of. I like objects that come out to show themselves at nice convenient times, not when my body says it should be sleeping. Well it just so happens that Comet Damn-O-Cloid (I think that sounds better than it's real name, which is actually 2013 UQ4) has the potential to be a wonderful July evening phenomena. This is nice because is seems like July, with its short, muggy nights always gets screwed on the "cool object" end of things, and with K1 PanStarrs gettin' out of town the stage is wide open for a brand new act. In fact, this looks to be great timing for those going to Stellafane or any other July star gazing event. So there's a new challenge for ya; see your first damocloid. I expect that Bill G will get the club's first picture of a damocloid, and Pete will perform spectro-analysis on it, and that Andy will get the deepest image of this strange new object. I'll probably make a sketch, and hopefully add this to my ever-growing list of neat objects observed.

To learn more about how and when to observe this, go here; http://www.universetoday.com/112598/ast ... is-summer/

Best of luck in your attempts to see this new and exciting object!

Mike M.
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
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Apollo XX
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Re: A New Comet Is Coming To Town

Unread post by Apollo XX »

UPDATE: It appears that the initial hype in some circles about this object brightening to mag-8ish was just that - hype. I spent the better part of two hours last night prowling Bootes in the area of Nekkar in search of something that moves. I came up with nada. The sky conditions weren't great - it was a bit milky - but the seeing was good. My reward for getting out there was a rock-steady Saturn, always a joy to observe. Still, if you think you'd like to give it a go (especially the serious astrophotographers - please!) here's some info on how to find Mr. Dam-O-Cloid;

Ephemeris info can be found here: http://in-the-sky.org/cometephem.php?obj=ck13u04q

An example of C/2013 UQ$'s current path through the sky. The white circle shows where it was on the day I made the chart. It's down by Nekkar now:
Image

A chart I made for use at the scope last night. The circled star is right next to where it should have been at that time. The star was easy enough to find, but I didn't see anything suspicious within about a 2* range of it. Of course if the comet is at <11.6 like some sources say it is, I wasn't going to see anything anyway. It was so humid out last night that the trees were literally dripping water by 8:30pm, and hampering the transparency in a big way.:
Image

If it's clear tonight I may throw up a cursory attempt to have a go at it. As dim as it's purported to be right now, I'll probably just go back to where I was last night and see if I can notice anything missing. That said, it's looking like this visitor to our neighborhood is a visual bust to us small scope practitioners.

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: A New Comet Is Coming To Town

Unread post by WCGucfa »

Wow, Mike, I truly believe we are Kindred Spirits now!
I found UQ4 on the 22nd.
I haven't had time to post the pics and maps, but will do so soon.
It's a story of the murk of the sky, problems with the scope drive, doubt of being in the right area, poor camera focus etc., etc.
All this ending with success!!
Stay tuned!

P.S. Oh, I forgot the best part...12.8 magnitude!!

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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Apollo XX
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Re: A New Comet Is Coming To Town

Unread post by Apollo XX »

Bill, I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of your conquest!

Mike
"The purpose of life is the investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the heavens." - Anaxagoras
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