C/2001 Q4 Neat Seen Labour Day evening

ykchia · Post by **ykchia** » Sat May 01, 2004 8:40 pm

Hi folks:

First attempt at Comet Neat Q4.
/ May 1 2004/
Slept through this morning - take a break from T7 but towards evening..

5:45 pm - 'why not printed out a map for Q4...' so I did.
6:15 pm - ' makan' at nearby food court.
6:30 pm - sitting at a nearby park - look hopelessly at the cloud covered sky. ..
7:30pm - the Canopus seen...high alt cloud levels obliterate most of the background stars...
7:35 - point the 75/105mm lens pair watec-mintron to Canopus.. waiting for more star to appears.
7:40 - sky did not improve.. using a handful of stars - star hop to comet location... a relatively bright 'patch' visible in 75mm watec. Switched over manually to the mintron and max out the x128 integration. The comet is there. Close to a relatively bright star...Verify with narrow angle star map - yup its Neat ..
8:05 ... let the tape run for a while... do some dark frames recording.. Images will be noisy..

rgds
ykchia
www.ykchia.com

Post by **rcj** » Sun May 02, 2004 10:54 pm

Was trying to catch up on lots of sleep after an exhausting week of comet chasing and CCD imaging. Will check in on Neat once the weather is suitable and my schedule fits! Heard it is mag 3.8 now? I see it is below Canis Major now...

ykchia · Post by **ykchia** » Wed May 05, 2004 3:20 pm

Hi folks:

May 4 04 - Found Q4 Neat close to epsilon canis major. Elevation of the comet was close to 30%. It was easy to find using watec-902H/lens on tripod. In fact I did not even aim and the happened to caught the comet. I checked the skymap pro just to confirmed what the hazy path was. It was 7:50pm. IF not for the clouds i think this will be a great object to look at through any scope.

rgds
ykchia

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:54 pm

ykchia wrote:Hi folks:

May 4 04 - Found Q4 Neat close to epsilon canis major. Elevation of the comet was close to 30%. It was easy to find using watec-902H/lens on tripod. In fact I did not even aim and the happened to caught the comet. I checked the skymap pro just to confirmed what the hazy path was. It was 7:50pm. IF not for the clouds i think this will be a great object to look at through any scope.

rgds
ykchia

hi chia,
ahh. good for it to be in a familair constellation...makes it easier...now for some cloudless evening. btw, anyone know how long it will stay in canis major? thanks

rich

ykchia · Post by **ykchia** » Thu May 06, 2004 1:25 pm

Hi Rich:

This Q4/Neat comet is moving pretty fast - about 5 degrees per day, it is leaving the canis major heading towards Monocerus then onto Canis Minor.... Its gaining higher elevation so at least is good news

Just make sure you plotted out the comet vs background star before u look for it.

Lets pray for better evening sky.....

rgds
ykchia

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Thu May 06, 2004 4:14 pm

Some help in locating the comet for the next couple of days (courtesy of Starry Night Backyard):

And Linear comet in two weeks time:

clear skies,
Arief

Post by **Airconvent** » Fri May 07, 2004 12:00 am

Thanks Chia and Arief
The charts are self explanatory and very useful!
Did you need to key in the comet data or is it already in the software's database?
I take it from the sequence the comet will move above Canis Major, loop around the sun and then fall back through and below canis major on 20 May 04?

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Fri May 07, 2004 12:25 am

Did you need to key in the comet data or is it already in the software's database?

The software connects to www.space.com to update its database every week or so.

I take it from the sequence the comet will move above Canis Major, loop around the sun and then fall back through and below canis major on 20 May 04?

No, NEAT will be in the Cancer on 20th May. The one below Canis Major is another comet, LINEAR (C/2002 T7).