Comet Tsuchinshan: - Ready 2 shoot

[OzEclipse]

I have another short window tomorrow morning. Only 3-4 clear nights out of the next seven so I need to be prepared. The scope is set up, balanced and ready to flick on. The polar axis should still be aligned from the asteroid time lapse. I'll check it tonight before covering the scope. Then when I wake up all dopey in the morning, all I need to do is to remove the covers.

Big scope Vixen VC200L 0.71x reducer 200mm ƒ6.4 1280mm focal length Pentax K1 full frame DSLR ISO 6400 8s exposures
Smaller Lens: Pentax 300mm EDIF ƒ4 telephoto prime lens with Pentax K5 APSc DSLR ISO1600 8s exposures

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Cheers

[helicon]

Hopefully you'll get it Joe.

[Graeme1858]

Good luck!

[AstroBee]

Good luck. I'm planning on attempting it later in the month as it gets higher here in the northern half.

[OzEclipse]

Sky: Mostly clear with 1 Octa of cloud....guess where the cloud was....candangit!!!

Cloudy tomorrow morning, totally clear Monday morning.



Joe

[Graeme1858]

Fingers crossed for Monday!

I see the tail is reported as 30' in length now.

[OzEclipse]

Fingers crossed for Monday!

I see the tail is reported as 30' in length now.

Hi Graeme,

Do you recall if that was a photographic or visual tail length?

I roughly estimated 30' visual in 15x70's on 20240918.795 UT and the tail looked like 40' in my photo at that same time.

Joe

[Graeme1858]

Fingers crossed for Monday!

I see the tail is reported as 30' in length now.

Hi Graeme,

Do you recall if that was a photographic or visual tail length?

I roughly estimated 30' visual in 15x70's on 20240918.795 UT and the tail looked like 40' in my photo at that same time.

Joe

It didn't say Joe, but the site is predominantly about visual observations and 0.5° tail length would match your findings.

I got it from here for compiling the MNSTW Topic.

[AstroBee]

I certainly hope that is visual measurements and not photographic. 0.5° is roughly the size of the full moon. Not that impressive for such a highly talked about comet. Photographically, they are likely to be double that size or more.

Just for comparison, here's a shot of this comet I took from my observatory back in June with my larger scope, the 152mm with a 0.7x reducer so roughly 850mm fl. fov 1.58°x1.05°


Compare that to this image of C/2023 P1 Nishimura taken Sept. 2023 with my little StellarVue SV70 which is 336mm FL with the reducer. This scope has a fov of 4°x 2.68°


I have two dates coming up that I'm hoping to be able to image this comet in the early morning hours. Sept. 29th and Oct. 2nd.
I think work is going to prevent any other chances for me.

[Graeme1858]

Here it is from the ISS:

[OzEclipse]

23 Sept 4:17 am EST (local time) Sept 22-18:17UT
SKY IS PERFECTLY CLEAR !!!!
Comet Tsuchinshan is right on the horizon, still hidden by the hills for a few more minutes. I did a quick shakedown image before I went to bed last night just to check the system was all working well.

Let the games begin.

Joe

[prowler75]

23 Sept 4:17 am EST (local time) Sept 22-18:17UT
SKY IS PERFECTLY CLEAR !!!!
Comet Tsuchinshan is right on the horizon, still hidden by the hills for a few more minutes. I did a quick shakedown image before I went to bed last night just to check the system was all working well.

Untitled-1 copy 2.jpg

Let the games begin.

Joe

Good luck! Hopefully everything stays clear for you.

I’m looking forward to when it is prime for the northern hemisphere.

[OzEclipse]

OBSERVATION TIME WINDOW: 20240922.785UT - 20240922.797UT

Sky: Bortle 5-6 due to large moon
Comet nucleus was just visible to the naked eye approx mag 4. No tail.
Easily visible with a short tail in 10x42ED binoculars
¹/₂^o to ²/₃^o tail visible with 15x70mm binoculars.

Photos to follow in astrophotography section.

viewtopic.php?t=36132

cheers