Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
starfinder wrote:I managed to view Comet C2013 R1(Lovejoy) again this morning at 5.45am, for about 5 mins. Through the LX-90 8" SCT and a 14mm eyepiece for 143x. It was about 22 deg in altitude in the NE in CVn. Sky conditions were quite poor, but in a couple of minutes of reduced cloudiness, it appeared as a round greyish faint blob. However, with a Lumicon Comet (swan band) filter it was strongly enhanced, at least doubling in size and contrast to be viewed as a large globular cluster-like glow but with a condensed core, with a total width perhaps about an arc minute across. I understand that the Comet Filter works only on gaseous comets and not on dusty comets, or to be more precise the gaseous parts of mixed dusty and gaseous comets, but note that dusty comets are more common.
Comet Lovejoy is now estimated by other seasoned comet observers to at around mag 5.0.
I think if the sky was clearer it would have appeared brighter.
I can also make preliminary assessments of the effect of other filters, though the variable cloudiness hampered definitive conclusions for these: an OIII filter seemed to block off visibility of the comet almost completely, but an Orion Ultrablock narrowband filter improved the view somewhat vs. no filter.
Hello starfinder. How about ISON? Did you have any luck? ISON & Lovejoy keeps getting eaten up by my area's clouds these days.
Hi Dark Neptune, I could not view Comet Ison on Sun 24 Nov due to clouds. I have managed to view Comet Ison twice altogether after trying for about 14 consecutive days. It's been one of the worst stretches of cloudiness ever here in Singapore, esp for dawn skies, and the timing is horrible! My 2nd sighting of Ison took place on Fri 22 Nov from 5.59am to 6.15am; I used a Lumicon Comet Filter and Ison was fairly bright and obvious in a 14mm eyepiece with my LX-90 8" SCT; I estimated it at around mag 4.0 then. No tail could be detected, just a round mottled glow with a slightly condensed core.
starfinder wrote:Hi Dark Neptune, I could not view Comet Ison on Sun 24 Nov due to clouds. I have managed to view Comet Ison twice altogether after trying for about 14 consecutive days. It's been one of the worst stretches of cloudiness ever here in Singapore, esp for dawn skies, and the timing is horrible! My 2nd sighting of Ison took place on Fri 22 Nov from 5.59am to 6.15am; I used a Lumicon Comet Filter and Ison was fairly bright and obvious in a 14mm eyepiece with my LX-90 8" SCT; I estimated it at around mag 4.0 then. No tail could be detected, just a round mottled glow with a slightly condensed core.
Awwww....but hey! At least you managed to see it! My east horizon near my house has like a dunno-how-many-#%@$!-degree-tall trees blocking it to prevent from finding ISON even on clear mornings.
