Comet Leonard plus extras...

[DeanD]

Hi all,

I just had a nice session with Comet Leonard, a -4 magnitude meteor and the lovely thin crescent Venus: not to mention Saturn and Jupiter of course!

Leonard was just visible naked eye from my backyard, but it really popped in 10x50 binoculars, and seemed quite a bit brighter than 2 nights ago: but this was probably because of its higher altitude, although the nucleus also seemed a lot more pronounced and star-like. Maybe a bit of an outburst? From my backyard it was almost exactly the same altitude as Saturn and about 13 degrees south, and I could pan from one to the other with my telescope on an alt-az mount just by pushing it sideways.

While I was trying for a naked eye view a meteor came from the zenith to almost the position of the comet, and it was about the same brightness as Venus (about -4).

With 22x60 binos the coma was flattened on the sun-side and appeared about 5' wide, and I could make out a faint but quite broad tail, pointing away from the sun, a bit under 1/2 degree in length and perhaps 20' wide at maximum. The nucleus was very bright and almost star-like. Very hard to estimate magnitude as the only nearby stars were around mag. 6 and it was rapidly dropping behind the neighbour's roof, but I would say around mag. 4. In my 4" refractor at 63x the tail was very faint, but extended almost all of the way across the 1.2 degree field, and about 20' across. I could make it out across almost the whole field when I dropped the nucleus out of the FOV and "wiggled" the scope.

... and then the cloud bank rolled across from the West.

Altogether a nice little comet, but not a naked eye show stopper!

A very pleasant 30 minutes of viewing, finished off with a quick look at the Trapezium in both the 22x60's and the refractor (where I could see the "E" and "F" stars).

All the best,

Dean

[jrkirkham]

Thank you for the report. I haven't paid much attention to Leonard because I've been on other projects. Last night a friend and I went looking for it. He found it in his 4" refractor and I caught it with my camera and a 400mm lens. I enjoyed reading your report and comparing it to our observations.

[helicon]

Great report Dean of your experiences with Leonard. Nice descriptions as well - congratulations on winning the TSS Visual Report of the Day award!

[messier 111]

love your report , thx .

[Juno16]

Sounds like almost the best way to spend 30 minutes!
Great report!

[Makuser]

Hi Dean. A very nice observing report of Comet Leonard. I enjoyed reading your descriptions of your session after sunset. No luck for me here with our constant overcast or rain. Thanks for your report Dean and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD Award today.

[kt4hx]

Well done Dean. A very nice detailed report on Leonard. Sounds like a delightful outing indeed and congrats on the VROD.

[Butterfly Maiden]

Congratulations Dean on receiving the TSS VROD for your excellent report.

[turboscrew]

-14°C (7°F) didn't feel that cold today, but it's been too cloudy.
Anyway, cool report. And congrats on the VROD.

[Bigzmey]

Great observation of Comet Leonard Dean and congrats on the VROD!

[John Baars]

Wonderful observation of the Christmas comet!
Thanks for your report.
Congratulations on the VROD!

[DeanD]

Follow-up observation: Leonard was even easier to see last night: a bit higher up and definitely naked eye. It didn't appear as flattened on the sun-ward side, and I understand it was undergoing an outburst the other night, so presumably this is what caused the flattened appearance, but now the gas and dust has been "blown" back. A friend in Victoria is a comet guru, and he gave magnitude estimates of 2.9 on Monday night and 3.5 last night. It didn't seem quite as bright from my backyard due to atmospheric extinction and high haze.

However, the tail has developed enormously, and he posted this image from last night:

Awesome!

Needless to say, it doesn't look quite like this visually, although the first 1/2 of the tail is visible, and the rest as a vague brightening as you jiggle the view with the nucleus out of the way.

- Dean

[notFritzArgelander]

That’s certainly a spectacular tail development!

[Unitron48]

Great session, great read! Congrats on the VROD!!

Dave

[DeanD]

it is fascinating to see a rapid change in the view. Tonight through my 4" refractor at 25x the nucleus was not as bright as 2 nights ago (I would say around a magnitude fainter, and less star-like), but the coma was a bit wider and the tail was brighter and more pronounced with some linear detail clearly visible over about a degree. A very faint fork was visible at about 1 1/2 degrees, and overall I could just make out some brightening due to the tail at almost 2 degrees (the full width of the FOV).

It was easier to see the tail in 10x50's too: visible for about 1 degree and about 20' wide, with just the faintest suggestion of something for another 1/2 degree. Not so easy naked-eye though.

[helicon]

Very interesting Dean. I'd probably guess that the solar wind is impacting the nucleus in such a way as material is being blown away, which then would result in a more prominent coma and tail as the gas/water ice is vaporized.

[DeanD]

Another quick update. From my backyard I am looking West over about 250m of housing with associated streetlights before reaching the sea, so while it isn't the darkest sky, it isn't too bad. The light from the neighbours' second floor bathroom window is a real nuisance though!

I had a look at around 9.00pm local time and again later at 10pm when it was fully dark.

The wide-field view of Leonard seems best through my 10x50's, and while it was only the first 2°that was easily visible I was able to trace about 4°of tail (about 2/3 of the FOV), with some nice parallel striations in the first degree or so. The coolest thing though was that as I followed up the direction of the tail I could still detect some background brightening (with a bit of wiggling of the binos) up almost to Formalhaut, about 12° away, and there was a small brighter "knob" just visible about 6° along this track. I understand this is from a possible break-away piece of the comet when it swung around the sun.

It remains a difficult object to see naked eye from my backyard, although you can detect a very faint "fuzzy". It is a bit easier if I wander down to the beach, but it isn't bright enough to be able to point it out to fellow beach walkers. The coma is still around Mag. 4 - 4.5

All the best,

Dean

[Ylem]

Great report Dean, congratulations on the well deserved VROD!