Comet C/2014 E2 (Jacques)

[starfinder]

There's a new comet in the skies, discovered only last month:
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2014/04/ ... ort-cloud/

Comet Jacques is reportedly at around mag 8.5 now:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Com ... sages/5585

Perihelion would be on 2 July 2014, with predicted peak brightness at around mag 6.

[starfinder]

More info. Here's a prediction for a peak brightness near the time of perihelion of mag 3+.

That would be quite bright as comets go, but it would be placed in the sky near the Sun then.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... EvEZ9ABpFg


How fitting, a Brazilian comet just in time for the World Cup! Who knows, whilst Neymar shines below, Comet Jacques would dazzle above.

[Mariner]

Nice. Hopefully the clouds don't gather.

[starfinder]

The Brazilian comet, Comet Jacques has brightened significantly in the past week, now reported at mag 7.5:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Com ... sages/5588

[Airconvent]

Hi Comet Hunter,
Still hoping for that "Comet of the Century"?
Let's all keep our fingers crossed together then, Gavin!

[starfinder]

I can report that Ivan and I managed to view Comet C/2014 E2 (Jacques) on the morning of Sat 26 July 2014 at about 5.45am, from Mersing district, Johor. We were there as part of Remus' astro expeditions group.

We viewed the comet in the eyepiece of my Skywatcher 120mm ED refractor at 45x. We also viewed the comet through a 60mm finderscope at 11x power.

As the scope was mounted on a Porta II mount, I located the comet through old fashioned star-hopping. The comet was then in Auriga, about 4 degrees NW of Elnath (beta-Tauri) and half a degree from the mag 5 star 14 Aurigae.

When we viewed the comet, it was about 21 deg above the ENE horizon.

Overall, the comet was quite unimpressive as it had no visible tail, and resembled a greyish-white small globular cluster but with a wedge-like slightly triangular shape. Nevertheless, it was very satisfying being able to locate and view the comet.

When a Lumicon Comet (swan band) Filter was added to the eyepiece, the contrast was enhanced significantly, but no additional detail or extent of the comet was achieved. Next, when a Lumicon OIII filter was used instead, the view was degraded vs an unfiltered view. I think it proves that the Comet Filter is no gimmick and works for gaseous comets like this one. Perhaps if the comet was located higher up, or if the sky conditions were better, we could have seen its tail.

Brightness wise, I did a quick out-of-focus comparison with the nearby mag 5.0 star 14 Aurigae. The star was much brighter, and so I roughly estimate the comet to have been about low mag 6+, which is in line with other reports of its then brightness.

[mrthomasyip]

Nice sighting of the comets.....

[starfinder]

I managed to image Comet C/2014 E2 (Jacques) this morning from my bedroom window in Singapore city, at about 6:15am. The comet was then in the constellation Camelopardalis (just 'below' Perseus) in the northeast, about 30+ deg above the horizon and 15 deg to the 'left' (west) of the bright star Capella.

I observed from the various frames taken over 15 mins that the comet had moved, relative to the background stars. Neat!

As can be seen in the image below, the comet is light greenish-white.

Imaging details:
Meade LX-90 8" SCT at f/10 (2000mm) ISO 1600 20s
14 August 2014 2219UTC

[Airconvent]

Nice Gavin!
Not everyone (if anyone) in Singapore can observe the skies from the comfort of their bedroom with your old battle-tested LX90 too.
The comet looks unimpressively dim so far...but the colour is nice.

[Airconvent]

Gavin
Apparently "your" comet can now be seen using binoculars

http://www.space.com/27032-comet-jacque ... guide.html