Comet 103P/Hartley 2 Visibility

[schmied77]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I see that this comet is going to be visible in October, will it be most visible by 10/20? I'm hoping to be able to see it from a ship in the Paicific Ocean on 10/16 near the border of US/Mexico. Can anyone tell me if it will be visible that night of 10/16-17? And if so, where should I look?

Thanks, not experienced at this at all.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

It will be between the constellations of Perseus and Auriga, above the bright star Capella, rising just after sunset, and about 45 degrees elevation in the ENE about midnight on those dates. Best viewing would be in the early morning hours after 2AM when the moon sets as the sky will be darker, and it will be even higher, nearly directly overhead. I have seen predictions it will be visible to the naked eye under those conditions, though binoculars would surely help.

Currently it's magnitude +11.4 (telescopic object) in Pegasus.

 

[Ninos]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

hello astronomers ... could you tell me if there is other than hartley comet to be visible right now or the upcoming months .. thank you

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

This is the site I use to keep up with visible (naked eye, binocular, telescope, and really big telescope) comets.

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

They are listed in order from brightest to dimmest, with comments about past, current, and future visibility.

 

[3488]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

Intersting to see 43P/Wolf-Harrington on that list.

It is a hybrid object, certainly icy one ONE SIDE, but the other side appears more asteroidal. The doomed CONTOUR spacecraft was to have encountered 43P/Wolf-Harrington, but unfortunately was destroyed whilst leaving Earth orbit.

Andrew Brown.

 

[Ninos]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

is there any problem with this site...??? errors appears always .. any help

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

Intersting to see 43P/Wolf-Harrington on that list.

It is a hybrid object, certainly icy one ONE SIDE, but the other side appears more asteroidal. The doomed CONTOUR spacecraft was to have encountered 43P/Wolf-Harrington, but unfortunately was destroyed whilst leaving Earth orbit.

Andrew Brown.

Got a source for that Andrew? I'm a bit skeptical, since it seems unlikely that even a light curve could be obtained from a 3.6 km sized object that hasn't come closer than 0.93 AU to earth since it's discovery.

Gary Kronk's Cometography page for 43P

JPL sbdb page for 43P

Gary Kronks Cometography page for 103P/Hartley 2

MW

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

is there any problem with this site...??? errors appears always .. any help

Can you be more specific? What kind of errors? What browser and ISP are you using? I am not experiencing any problems at this time. (IE8/comcast)

BTW such reports should be in the "Community Talkback" topic in the Community Announcements and Information forum (the very top one in the index), rather than in an astronomy discussion. I'll probably move this question there.

Wayne

 

[schmied77]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

Thanks for the info MeteorWayne. Now I know where to look.

 

[NTS]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

Tried to spot it tonight from my townhome near Honolulu with a 4.5 inch scope -- no luck. I'm in a fairly light polluted area with a lot of outside lights so seeing anything dim is a challenge!

 

[adrenalynn]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

I've spotted it here in California with the 100mm binoculars, and that was with horrendous moon pollution, but it was a reach. Given rise-and-set and lunar phase, my really good peaking opportunity is Oct 3/4.

I don't know your experience, but if you have a good 4.5" scope, drop in the 25-26mm eyepiece, hopefully a good fully multicoated, remove any light pollution filters, and use the corners of your eye. If you don't have a goto interfaced to the PC it's a bit of a hunt to find. There were great markers during the full moon with it traversing dead center of Auriga, but it's heading into a much tougher region of the sky for guide-stars in a small scope.

Really objects like this are far easier to pick out with dedicated astronomy binoculars. I really have to give the nod to the Celestron 80mm and 100mm binoculars because they're so incredibly inexpensive for a _lot_ of reach (you do need a good tripod for them though). The Orion are also good binoculars for this task.

For ~$150 you can pick up binoculars that will positively destroy a reflecting 'scope for visual observation of barely reachable comets. For locating comets for photography, I combine computer-tracked goto with various visual gridding mechanisms with the binoculars. There's no way I do visual search with a 'scope. Just hard to make it practical unless you're going really deep with computerized gridding and a big scope with an expensive CCD.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

I rather enjoy searching with my 8" dob. My Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000 has pencil sketches of every comet I've observed on the maps

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

BTW, the closest approach to earth for the comet (from the JPL Sentry system) is on Oct 20 at 0.1209 AU or ~ 47 X Lunar Distance.

 

[NTS]

Thanks for the reply, adrenalynn.

I have a pair of 8X42 binoculars but couldn't spot the comet with them. It is tough hunting around using the (Orion) 4.5" scope even with the 25mm eyepiece. I've never owned a goto scope -- I like finding my way around the sky "by eye", but obviously it has its limitations!

I think you're right that around October 1 or so the comet should be easier to spot. It'll be brighter (and close to a bright star) and the moon should be more out of the way. If the clear weather holds (we do get rain in Hawaii sometimes!) I'll try again then.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet Hartley 2 Visibility

BTW, the closest approach to earth for the comet (from the JPL Sentry system) is on Oct 20 at 0.1209 AU or ~ 47 X Lunar Distance.

SDC Article on CA

 

[adrenalynn]

I was able to recover 103P/Hartley 2 this morning in good condition at 0819hrs UTC with the 20x100 binoculars on a heavy tripod. Conditions were rapidly approaching poor with some high clouds in the region and moon-glow on the horizon blowing-out unaided visibility to a Mag 3.5ish.

Hartley 2 was just below Theta Geminorum (Gemini) with Mebsuta and the triangle as the best guide-star.

From the corner of my eye a slight wispy tail was just visible. It was a bit dimmer than the stars around it, probably around Mag 7+.

I'll try some photography in a few days when the moon is a bit better behaved and I have more time. Maybe Sunday/Monday local time.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I hope to try over the weekend. After 6.29" (15.98 cm) of rain in 34 hours ending yesterday, despite a cold frontal passage, still too much goo in the air...I could barely pick out Cassiopeia under "clear" skies. No chance of finding the comet.

 

[adrenalynn]

I hope to try over the weekend. After 6.29" of rain in 34 hours ending yesterday, despite a cold frontal passage, still too much goo in the air...I could barely pick out Cassiopea under "clear" skies. No chance of finding the comet.

Holy cow, that's a deluge!

My current and historical weather is always available from my station here: http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... KCASACRA47

Or live-live and pretty here:
http://www.wunderground.com/swf/Rapid_F ... KCASACRA47

 

[MeteorWayne]

I see your yearly high was 114.3 F (45.7 C). I do believe I would have sponateously combusted!! :lol:

 

[adrenalynn]

Yeah, we were a couple degrees below normal max. And for a shorter time. . .

The nice thing is that you can still get out and see the sky when it's hot - 6" of rain - not so much. :? We tend to cool off pretty nicely at night, even on those really hot days. Although we had like a 10" run on the rainfall this last winter/spring that was pretty awful. Had to pump water away from the foundation. A bit OT though we are.

Those wind gusts are a little deceptive. I'm not up high enough to be happy with them. I wanted to get up another 3m before this next winter. (I'm just 3.5m above the roofline right now, 10m up)

 

[3488]

Re: Comet 103P/103PHartley 2 Visibility

Intersting to see 43P/Wolf-Harrington on that list.

It is a hybrid object, certainly icy one ONE SIDE, but the other side appears more asteroidal. The doomed CONTOUR spacecraft was to have encountered 43P/Wolf-Harrington, but unfortunately was destroyed whilst leaving Earth orbit.

Andrew Brown.

Got a source for that Andrew? I'm a bit skeptical, since it seems unlikely that even a light curve could be obtained from a 3.6 km sized object that hasn't come closer than 0.93 AU to earth since it's discovery.
MW

Sorry Wayne did not see your request, as I have not really looked at this thread since.

I have found this, which is a bit different about 43P/Wolf-Harrington & is updated to 2004.

Fascinating, looks like acivity may on only a tiny prortion of the nucleus.
43P/Wolf-Harrington.

My mistake, I hold my hands up, got confused with 107P/1949 W1 (Wilson-Harrington), getting tired, change of medication, etc. Duh.

I've enjoyed reading recent posts on here from both Wayne & Adrenalynn concerning local weather & chances of seeing 103P/ Hartley 2. I would like to join in. Here, it is very cloudy 18 C with a great deal of rain coming up from the south. It is still dry now as at 14:27 HRS UTC. Tomorrow is a wash out, however from Monday, sunny spells with decreasing showers & some clearer night time spell, so perhaps I will get a chance.

Andrew Brown.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Comet 103P/103PHartley 2 Visibility

Fascinating, looks like acivity may on only a tiny prortion of the nucleus.

I think what we've learned with the first few nuclei we've had closeups of, is that appears to be the case for all we've seen.

 

[StarryMessenger]

While I've found the current predicted path of Comet 103/P Hartley 2, I have not been able to find it for Comet McNaught C/2009 R1. Does anyone have a clue? I've heard that it is a Mag 7 in our Vermont skies.

 

[MeteorWayne]

From the resource I use and post about over and over again...

C/2009 R1 (McNaught)
"Paul Camilleri reported that it was not visible, fainter than 14-15 mag, on Sept. 29. It was expected to be bright as 11 mag, but it seems to have faded rapidly. It passed the perihelion in July and brightened up to 5 mag. Hirohisa Sato reported that it was clearly visible in the SWAN images in August. It kept visible in the SWAN images until Sept. 6. However, it may have been disintegrated after that. It is observable in the Southern Hemisphere after this. In the Northern Hemisphere, it will never be observable again."
From:

http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

It is currently at ~ RA 10:55, Dec -49, too far south to be seen from Vermont. It comes close to the horizon for southernmost VT at about 10 AM

 

[MeteorWayne]

I finally spotted the comet tonight for the first time in my 7x35 binos at midnight. I never would have picked it up sweeping the sky, a star chart was essential. Really quite diffuse and faint (Of course, this was in my moderately light polluted neighborhood) A good chance to spot it will be on the morning of the 19th when it will be near the "kids", the isosceles triangle of stars just to the right of Capella. I plan to go up to the observatory after moonset for some meteor observing, so may get out the ol' Astroscan 2001; it should be a good instrument for it.

MW