Observations of Tuesday morning 11/11/2013

Written 12/11/2013 started whilst observing.

Not sure which is more stressful; chasing the comets to image before dawn, processing the most interesting images or thinking of what to write on here :)

Certainly chasing the comets is getting more hectic as drop lower in the sky and it becomes a race to beat dawn.C/2013 R1 Lovejoy is bright and high in the sky, in fact I realised after the fact that I need to look at bringing down the exposure time for Lovejoy.  C/2012 S1 ISON is still high enough to get reasonable images, but 2P/Encke and C/2012 X1 Linear are getting quite difficult.  Today will be the last time I will try - if I have time - for a colour image of Encke and Linear.

All images were captured using the SON@OSC Observatory (Searchlight Observatory Network) 4" Pentax F4 Refractor and an ST8 CCD camera

Here are some of yesterday's images.

The t(r)ail on Encke is still very distinct and some 150 arc minutes of it are visible

2P/Encke

2P/Encke

Linear is getting quite faint, especially now dawn approaches. It is still possible to see the what is left from the recent outburst. 

C/2012 X1 Linear

C/2012 X1 Linear

I expect that this will be the final colour image.

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C/2012 X1 Linear

The second tail of ISON was first observed a couple of days ago. This was the first chance I have had to image ISON and capture the two tails.

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 S1 ISON

The two tails of Lovejoy are quite clear. There seems to be, below the other two tails, either a third tail starting or a minor outburst. 

  

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

I will start the observing report of this morning's observations soon. The tails of ISON have changed so I will want to get an image on here soon. :)

More on Friday Morning's Comets plus Saturday Morning's Comets - that quartet again!

On Friday 08/11/2013 I wrote a little about 2P/Encke and that day's imaging of it. Here are some other images I took that morning.

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy Negative

C/2012 X1 Linear

C/2012 X1 Linear Crop

Saturday morning - 09/11/2013 - covered the Quartet - Again!.

First 2P/Encke. As there was a fair amount on interest in its trail I spent as much time as possible on imaging this before dawn came.

What follows are four versions of the same image. The first is the regular image. The second is the negative. The third is a stretched regular and the fourth a stretched negatve. In the final image you can really see the meandering trail.

2P/Encke

2P/Encke

2P/Encke

2P/Encke

Below is C/2012 S1 ISON.  This is still not developing very much, though I did see an image that was taken 24 hrs after this one and a second tail has now clearly appeared. I will be trying for this tomorrow morning.

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 X1 Linear continues to be fairly bright after its outburst.

C/2012 X1 Linear

C.2013 R1 Lovejoy is really becoming the star of the show. It continues to brighten and is well ahead of ISON. Where as ISON is difficult to see in 10x50 binos, Lovejoy is now being seen with the naked eye.

I used four different method of processing Lovejoy to see if I could bring out more detail. I then stretched each one.

Process 1.

Process 2

 Process 3 

Process 4

All the images were taken using the Searchlight Observatory Network Observatory here in the Sierra Contraviesa, Granada, Spain at an altitude of 4,500 feet. The telescope used is a 4" Pentax F4 refractor and the camera is a SBig ST8 . All the images, with the exception of the cropped Linear are FOV 116.5 x 77.7 arcmins

There was no observing on the morning of Sunday 10th November due to my wife going to England for a week or two. I thought it would not go down too well to open the observatory while she was getting ready to leave :)

In the next blog I will include some objects that are not comets :)

A Kinky Tail or Trail? Comet 2P/Encke

I had a good observing session again using the SON@OSC observatory. Again I have been using the beautiful 4" Pentax F4 refractor along with the SBIG ST8 camera.

How many of us make a "discovery" only to find that it has been known about for some time? There is though the satisfaction of knowing that you have spotted something out of the ordinary. :)

I have taken a number of images of 2P Encke that have shown it unusual tail, but one of this morning's images really brought it out. I posted it on the closed user group on Facebook "Comet Watch" this morning and it attracted quite a lot of positive comments and likes. Some of the comments also helped me to understand what is going on.

Before that, here is the image that I "played" around with to bring out the detail.

and a cutout section to show more

As you can see, especially in the second image the "tail" has quite a few kinks in it. My understanding - and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong - is that what we are looking at is the comet dust trail (not the tail) - the very same that causes the Taurids meteor showers. 

Why there are kinks is another matter. They have been known about for over a 100 years. This is a report from the MNRAS 1904.

It was to be more than ninety years after this visual viewing that trails were first imaged by large professional observatories and it was not until 2007 that amateur astronomers first imaged one. There is a nice article in Sky & Telescope about it 

A Comet Caught by Its Trail March 15, 2007 by Mike Holloway

Well worth a read, but to get back to the kinks,  Were they caused by comet outbursts, solar winds, coronal mass ejections or even close encounters with asteroids?  I do not know. I will continue to image the trail and to examine again some of my other images of 2P Encke. 

This morning I also imaged C/2012 S1 ISON, C/2012 X1 Linear and C/2013 R1 Lovejoy. These will be published shortly.

Comet 2P Encke is an interesting comet for a number of other reasons.

It was the 2nd Periodic Comet to be discovered (Halley is 1P/Halley)

It has a very short orbital time - just over 3 years - which means that there is a good probability that I will be able observe it a few more times at least :)

Quartet Revisited

Taken yesterday morning a quartet of Comets using the 4"Pentax at F4 & ST8 here at the SON@OSC (Searchlight Observatory Network at Observatorio Sierra Contraviessa). Comets 2013 R1 Lovejoy, 2012 X1 Linear, 2012 S1 ISON and 2P Encke.

FOV 116.5 x 77.7 arcmin for the full frame images

 4 one minute exposures LRGB

Should you wish to repost any of these images please let me know and also indicate that they are the property of SON@OSC, Tony Angel & Caisey Harlingten, (or words to that effect).

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 S1 ISON

C/2012 X1 Linear

C/2012 X1 Linear

C/2012 X1 Linear

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

C/2012 S1 ISON

2P Encke

2P Encke

Another comet imaging night. Comet C/2012 S1 ISON was hidden by cloud so time was spent on the other three main comets in the sky, Lovejoy, Linear and Encke.  Lovejoy is high in the sky, but Linear and Encke are fairly low 

All the images on this page were taken at the SON@OSC observatory (Searchlight Observatory Network at the Observatorio Sierra Contraviesa).

The equipment used was the 4" Pentax F4 Refractor and the ST8 with LRGB filters.

Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy

Comet C/2012 X1 Linear

Comet 2P Encke

A Quartet of Comets - Observed Monday 28th October 2013

Taken this morning a quartet of Comets using the 4"Pentax at F4 & ST7 here at the SON@OSC (Searchlight Observatory Network at Observatorio Sierra Contraviessa). Comets 2013 R1 Lovejoy, 2012 X1 Linear, 2012 S1 ISON and 2P Encke.

The conditions were not perfect with thin to medium cloud.

Should you wish to repost any of these images please indicate that they are the property of SON@OSC, Tony Angel & Caisey Harlingten

Comet 2P Enke

Comet 2012 S1 ISON

Comet 2012 X1 Linear

Comet 2013 R1 Lovejoy