comet panstarrs observing session

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:17 pm

Okay Guys..

Just had a look on Accuweather and tomorrow the 13th
is looking good as far as their concerned.
It has it down as clear from 6pm onwards
but we all know that we take that with a pinch of salt..
But at least its promising..
So lets hope for some clear skies and that PAN STARRS
plays ball.

Cheers Roy

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:53 am

Okay I take it from the club
txt that we will be doing this
from the tescos carpark..
I just needed to know so I could
arrange the keys for the other place..

Cheers Roy

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 7:41 pm

The skies cleared and the club had great views of the comet through binos and scopes , great views !!

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:17 pm

Hey guys..

I second those comments by Dave
it was a great night and great views..
I for one can't wait to see Michael Johnsons
Pics..

Cheers Roy

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:45 pm

I took some sneaky widefield shots, not knowing if any of them would come out, but hey, I was due to be lucky,
Is this a faint comet or what !!! no wonder we couldnt see it with the naked eye....

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8556 ... 5cbd_o.jpg

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:03 pm

Nice catch Dave..
Took a few widefield shots
myself but I haven't had a chance
to look through em, fingers crossed.

Cheers Roy

Gordon Lalor · Post by **Gordon Lalor** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 12:28 am

Great catch Dave.
What was the view like through the club binos?

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:03 pm

The view through the club binos was great, perfectly circular coma and a nice fanning tail, bright enough to be comfortably seen...

btw, for anyone uploading images into flick, they can tag them with shannonsideastronomy then they'll appear in the imaging feed for SAC.

So many images of the comet out there make it look alot brighter then it actually is, I think this pic puts things into perspective.

Tom Walsh · Post by **Tom Walsh** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:10 pm

Nice Picture Dave!

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:55 pm

Bloody hell was it faint or what!?
Stuck up at work so I couldn't get down in time to hunt with the club at the carpark (nice spot BTW Dave) I did manage to find a grand
Spot a min from our office that has spectacular views to the west over Galway city and the bay.

I was just going to pack it in after over an HOUR of scanning for it when it
became visible in the twilight and haze.
No way was this thing naked eye. Well not for my eyes anyway.

The funny thing is though that the figures released today show it o be still brightening. :-p
Who knows maybe in a week or so it might look a little more impressive but it was really cool to see it all the same.

Roy Stewart · Post by **Roy Stewart** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:20 pm

Nice catch Frank..
Was so happy that I caught
it at all that I forgot to set up
the camera to the scope, instead
I let Michael Johnson use it, (Go Figure).

Cheers Roy

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:02 pm

Frank Ryan wrote: The funny thing is though that the figures released today show it o be still brightening. :-p
Who knows maybe in a week or so it might look a little more impressive but it was really cool to see it all the same.

nice shot!!
dont know how this is going to pan out, some predictions say that by this time next week, it'll have halved in brightness, yet others saying it is still brightening,......
remember the cats analogy.....
time will tell.

see the bottom of
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2011L4/2011L4.html

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 10:57 pm

is the comet nucleus breaking up?, check out
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php ... &year=2013

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:26 pm

Sure looks like it! This could actually be a good thing.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:01 pm

big time !
one of the guys in cork took some pics this evening (IFAS) and it almost looks like to me that its brightening maybe....

see how non commital that was.