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Ken-Young's Avatar
Ken-Young is offline Ken-Young
2014-12-31 , 00:20
Posts: 387 | Thanked: 1,700 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Cambridge, MA, USA
#1
There's a nice comet (C2014Q2 - Lovejoy) in the sky right now, and it is slowly making its way northward. It's technically a naked eye object, but unless you have really dark sky you'll need binoculars to see it. It should brighten a bit, and be a nice object in mid January for northern observers, after the full moon. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astro...ght-122920141/ . If you want to use the N900 orrery program to find this comet, download and uncompress the attached file, and place it in the directory /usr/share/orrery/comets/ on your N900. If you happen to have the files ISON.comet and Pan-STARRS.comet in that directory, you should delete them (they were losers!). You will need to restart the orrery to see the new comet. If you don't see it (it's in Lepus right now) go to the Displayed Items menu, and make sure Display Comets is selected for both screens.
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File Type: gz Lovejoy.comet.gz (58.4 KB, 134 views)
Last edited by Ken-Young; 2014-12-31 at 00:27.
 

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Fatalist is offline Fatalist
2015-01-01 , 15:24
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#2
Thanks for the Orrery update for this comet. Yes, ISON and Pan.STARRS were losers, too much hype about them. People expected a good astronomical spectacle...
 

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Dave999 is offline Dave999
2015-01-01 , 15:45
Posts: 7,075 | Thanked: 9,073 times | Joined on Oct 2009 @ Moon! It's not the East or the West side... it's the Dark Side
#3
is the comet gone?
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Fatalist is offline Fatalist
2015-01-01 , 17:30
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#4
No, the minimum distance from our planet of C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy will be on January 19, it will probably visible with small telescopes, but, the hope is that the comet will bring some surprise and beat the expectations.

Source: http://theskylive.com/c2014q2-info
 

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Ken-Young is offline Ken-Young
2015-01-01 , 18:00
Posts: 387 | Thanked: 1,700 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Cambridge, MA, USA
#5
Originally Posted by Fatalist View Post
No, the minimum distance from our planet of C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy will be on January 19, it will probably visible with small telescopes, but, the hope is that the comet will bring some surprise and beat the expectations.

Source: http://theskylive.com/c2014q2-info
It's already visible with just binoculars. Note that the magnitude estimates in the file for the orrery are too faint (by 5 magnitudes - a factor of 100). The file was generated from the output of the NASA/JPL Horizons program, and the comet is considerably brighter now than the Horizons program predicts.
Last edited by Ken-Young; 2015-01-02 at 01:08.
 

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Mara is offline Mara
2015-01-02 , 15:08
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#6
I found this link to contain good information about the comet:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2014Q2/2014Q2.html

I haven't tried to spot it yet but will do once the sky clears... Maybe tomorrow.
 

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Dave999 is offline Dave999
2015-01-05 , 19:45
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#7
Used it but still havent seen Mr Lovejoy

http://t.space.com/all/28116-comet-l...-skywatching#1
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Ken-Young is offline Ken-Young
2015-01-06 , 02:36
Posts: 387 | Thanked: 1,700 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Cambridge, MA, USA
#8
Originally Posted by Dave999 View Post
Used it but still havent seen Mr Lovejoy

http://t.space.com/all/28116-comet-l...-skywatching#1
Well, we're just one day past the full moon. Give it a week for the moon to wain, and the comet will be much easier to see.
 

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Mara is offline Mara
2015-01-06 , 12:31
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#9
Originally Posted by Ken-Young View Post
Well, we're just one day past the full moon. Give it a week for the moon to wain, and the comet will be much easier to see.
I saw it with binoculars on Saturday, even with nearly full moon. I'm also going to wait another week or so get better view after the moon is out of the picture...
 

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