Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - bright in late 2013

[gchew]

Is there any Comet ISON hunt at ECP this weekend?

[starfinder]

I finally managed to view Comet Ison!

I got up this morning to watch the Sweden v Portugal match at 3.45am and kept an eye on the sky. It was overcast right up to around 5.20am when the clouds started to break in the NE to SE.

By about 5.45am, Spica and Denebola were visible with unaided eyes. When I looked into the eyepiece, I was pleasantly rather shocked to see how bright Comet Ison was! A most thrilling view. Finally after weeks of waiting and trying a few times. Meade LX-90 8" SCT at 100x, 143x, and 200x. The comet was quite bright, whitish, round (a few arc minutes in diameter), and looked much like a globular cluster. I estimate that it was brighter than most globular clusters including M13. The comet had a perceptibly strong condensed core, but I could not make out a tail despite the usual tricks (moving object around in eyepiece and using averted vision). It was easy to view and obvious, esp considering I was viewing it from Singapore city. Comet Ison was then in Virgo about 6 degrees NW of Spica.

Timing wise is quite good as Ison has just had its outburst. It's now reported at around mag 5+ (as of 14 Nov), see this link which is the place for the latest comet brightness estimates (thanks to the comet expert Jia Hao for the reference):

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Come ... ons/topics
See for example: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Come ... opics/5390


I then imaged the comet with the same telescope; here it is. Canon EOS 60D ISO 1600 15s, contrast adjusted.
15 November 2013, 2205 UTC.

As can be seen, the comet is very greenish in the image, but I could not detect any colour when viewing it in the eyepiece.

[KKK26]

cool, nice shot Gavin. Your patience paid off.

[lqx]

Nice green hue Gavin!

[Gary]

Well done! Congrats!

[Gary]

Source: http://www.astro.sg/2013/11/comet-ison- ... apore.html

Finder charts for hunting Comet ISON early morning tomorrow as seen from Singapore (17 Nov).

Face east. Locate Spica before 6am. Take mental note of ISON's location from Spica.



Find L-shape star pattern thru bino/telescope at upper left of Spica at about 3.5° arc degrees away.



Good luck and clear skies!

[bornfree]

Thanks!!

[starfinder]

Thanks all for your kind comments!

--

Check this out. Comet Ison has developed a very long and picturesque classical tail that's 7 degrees long in the sky, and over 16 million km long in reality:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_up ... vrcadp7d15

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_up ... vrcadp7d15


Back on Earth, the inhabitants of the Sunny Isle of Singapore wait and wait for the clouds to clear...

[antares2063]

Back on Earth, the inhabitants of the Sunny Isle of Singapore wait and wait for the clouds to clear...

Sigh...weather has been terrible, hoping for a chance to see it at least once ..

[Dark Neptune]

Back on Earth, the inhabitants of the Sunny Isle of Singapore wait and wait for the clouds to clear...

Sigh...weather has been terrible, hoping for a chance to see it at least once ..

Same..... where on Earth are the clouds coming from man.....

My site in the west is bombarded with so much clouds, its as if an atomic bomb filled with tons of water vapour exploded in the sky and I am suffering its aftermath.