Comet C/2011 L4 panSTARRS

Magnitude: 7.3
DATE: May 5th 2013

TELESCOPE: SkyWatcher st102 f/5 Achromat
MOUNT: EQ-5 Single Axis Motor
CAMERA: Canon EOS 550d
EXPOSURE: 37 x 30s + 10 Darks @ ISO 1600
SOFTWARE: Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop CS5

Comet C/2012 K5 Linear

Comet Mag: 9.5

Date: December 19th, around 9:40 U.T.

Telescope: Skywatcher st102 f/5 refractor

Camera: Canon EOS 550D (unmodified)

Mount: EQ5 with Single Axis Motor

Exposure: 14 x 55 seconds at ISO 800, 5 darks

Softwares: DeepSkyStacker and Photoshop CS6

The Brightest Comets in Recent History

The comet C/2012 S1 Ison is predicted to be as bright as magnitude -10 during November 2013. Still we can’t predict what will happen to Ison. Either it will be the great comet or it will disintegrate due to very close distance from the Sun.  We all are excited about this comet but it’s good time to refer on some bright comes that shone to the naked eye brightness in recent years. Here is a list of 42 comets of recent history. The maximum peak of brightness shown in the bracket.

Comet C/1965 S1 Ikeya-Seki

(1) C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) [-10]

(2) C/2006 P1 (McNaught)  [-5.5]

(3) C/1975 V1 (West)  [-3]

(4) C/1947 X1 (Southern comet)  [-3]

(5) C/1948 V1 (Eclipse comet) [-1]

(6) C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) [-0.8]

(7) C/1956 R1 (Arend-Roland) [-0.5]

(8) C/2002 V1 (NEAT)  [-0.5]

(9) C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) [0.0]

(10) C/1969 Y1 (Bennett)  [0.0]

(11) C/1973 E1 (Kohoutek) [0.0]

(12) C/1962 C1 (Seki-Lines)  [0.0]

(13) C/1998 J1 (SOHO)  [0.5]

(14) C/1957 P1 (Mrkos)  [1.0]

(15) C/1970 K1 (White-Ortiz-Bolelli)  [1.0]

(16) /1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock) [1.7]

(17) C/1941 B2 (de Kock-Paraskevopoulos)  [2.0]

(18) C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)  [2.2]

(19) 1P/1982 U1 (Halley)  [2.4]

(20) 17P (Holmes)  [2.4]

(21) C/2000 WM_1 (LINEAR)  [2.5]

(22) C/1964 N1 (Ikeya)  [2.7]

(23) C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)  [2.8]

(24) C/1989 W1 (Aarseth-Brewington)  [2.8]

(25) C/1963 A1 (Ikeya)  [2.8]

(26) 153P/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang)  [2.9]

(27) C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)  [3.0]

(28) C/1936 K1 (Peltier)  [3.3]

(29) C/2004 F4 (Bradfield)  [3.3]

(30) C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)  [3.5]

(31) C/1942 X1 (Whipple-Fedtke-Tevzadze)  [3.5]

(32) C/1940 R2 (Cunningham)  [3.5]

(33) C/1939 H1 (Jurlof-Achmarof-Hassel)  [3.5]

(34) C/1959 Y1 (Burnham)  [3.5]

(35) C/1969 T1 (Tago-Sato-Kosaka)  [3.5]

(36) C/1980 Y1 (Bradfield)  [3.5]

(37) C/1961 O1 (Wilson-Hubbard)  [3.5]

(38) C/1955 L1 (Mrkos)  [3.5]

(39) C/1990 K1 (Levy)  [3.6]

(40) C/1975 N1 (Kobayashi-Berger-Milon)  [3.7]

(41) C/1974 C1 (Bradfield)  [3.9]

(42) C/1937 N1 (Finsler)  [3.9]

Observing and Imaging Comet 168P Hergenrother

On a gradually darkening evening of 14^th August, Sunday, I decided to observe the brightest comet visible in the sky. I set up my 10-inch Dobsonian telescope in my home’s balcony to observe the comet. I had no problem locating the comet, now shining at magnitude 9 in the Great Square of Pegasus. The comet was within 3.5 degrees from Alpha Andromeda star and just half degree from the 6^th magnitude star 79 Pegasi.  Using the 2” 38mm Orion Q70 eyepiece, giving 31.5x, it wasn’t difficult to identify the comet. It was like a fuzz ball next to 8.5^th magnitude star. At 48x using a 25mm plossl eyepiece, the comet appeared as slightly elongated blob. I didn’t spend more time observing it visually because I had to capture it in my camera too. I can see only a small portion of the sky from my home’s balcony and Pegasus was getting higher in the sky so I had less time for taking its picture.

I then set up my EQ5 mount on its metal tripod and further fixed my Canon EOS 550D camera. I was using Canon 55-250mm EF-S telephoto zoom lens. Setting the lens at 250mm I turned on the single axis motor and began taking exposures. I took 5 images with 1 minute exposure each at ISO 800 and f/5.6 and stacked them using Deep Sky Stacker with 2 darks and 2 flats. 

Starry Night Prediction of Comet C/2012 S1 ISON

The newly discovered comet C/2012 S1 ISON could become a brilliant object at the end of 2013. The comet currently shines at +19 magnitude but it's expected to shine at -9 magnitude by late November 2013. To see how it will appear I downloaded orbital elements of this comet in my Starry Night Pro planetarium software and what I saw is really mind blowing and breath taking! According to the software the comet will shine at magnitude -10 and will be very low in the west at the time of sunset in November 29, 2013. As the image below shows, its tail will stretch around 90 degrees in the sky and its nucleus will be 3 degrees from the Sun.  It might therefore eject vast jets of gas and dust and be spectacular with a fine tail and even become one of the finest comets ever witnessed by mankind.