Comet Pan-STARRS Timelapse

Now ,That is cool.Tks

I haven't seen it yet

For the record, I wasn't able to spot it by eye through the haze, only in the telescope.

REALLY nice, Dr. Rastro (pronounced like the Jetsons LOL)

Thanks for sharing!

Another dud comet. I looked for it. Barely and I mean barely made it out. Saw no tail, just a tiny dot on the extreme limits of my ability to see.

Just like Hale-Bopp and Haley's. They both sucked. Hayketakye (sp?) rocked. It was beautiful. I will always remember the beauty of it.

But Pannstarrs sucks ass. Nice if you are rich and can afford a telescope or binoculars, but for us normal folks without those fancy gadgets it sucked.

Binoculars can be had for cheap. It's not exactly a "great" comet, but I certainly wouldn't say it sucks. I'll admit my gadgets do spoil me though; to me a sucky comet is one that never gets brighter than about magnitude 12~15.

I don't know if "dud" is entirely fair. I don't think PanSTARRS was supposed to be terribly amazing. It's not too bad if you've got a little bit of zoom available.

Here are a few shots I took of it:
[link to www.dropbox.com (secure)]

Last Edited by phoomp on 03/16/2013 05:51 AM

Thanks Astro. I wasn't spotting it with my eyes, so this is nice to see. Appreciate it.

Can it be seen in any western sky along with the setting sun?

Nice shots!

It can be seen just after sunset just north and a few degrees above where the sun set. It's not easy though and you really have to have clear skies with no haze; you can see the haze dim the comet in my video as it gets deeper and deeper in the haze. Towards the end I double the exposure length to compensate before it sets.

Thanks. Too much cloud interference in the PNW to see now. How much longer will it be visible? Thanks in advance.

I think we just need to wait a few days untill we'll really see it. Just like NASA put it, ironically it will get brighter the more time goes by as it escapes sunlight. they're saying its at 0.2 so it should be pretty bright. They've also been lowballing it's brightness for quite a while, it looks amazing on stereo-b. patience

Damn mountains was in my way here
Was gonna drive to a spot i could see it but then the clouds got me those days

Come on ISON!!!

Nice vid doc! We can live vicariously with ur vid

5 stars!

About halfway through the video a UFO totally tracks across the screen from right to left. Was that a plane or something?

It'll technically remain above the bare minimum for naked eye visibility well into April, however it will drop below the magnitude that most people can see from suburban locations by about the beginning of April (at which time it will be a great target for small telescopes and binoculars, not that it isn't already if you can catch it). That said, it is performing above JPL HORIZONS expectations and it will get farther from the sun every night making it easier to see even as it gets dimmer.

That's what I mentioned in the OP that I'm trying to identify. It's probably a satellite, but I need to try out a new more powerful tool to identify it.

Very nice job Astro, thanks. How long a window do we have to look after sunset? Few minutes? hour? Also, at what time stamp in your vid does the satellite or whatever go by? Did you figure out what it is yet?

I probably won't have time to figure it out tonight, but I am getting the tools in place to do so. It flew by at about 8:43pm eastern.

Oh and how long you have to see it after sunset depends on where you are. Here's a tool you can use to figure out exactly how long and where:
[link to ssd.jpl.nasa.gov]
Put in your location, change table settings to show apparent alt/az, and then search for the target "C/2011 L4"

Thank you and thank you.

ty Astro...

wooow so many things hapenin right now

at the galactic Plane

and in our conscience...

Awesome.

Thank you for sharing...




:)

Thx for sharing, good stuff!

Astro, have you ever seen a UFO?

Nope, unfortunately not.

Nice one! Thanks Astro!

Where were you watching Hale-Bopp from? I was in the Chicago area and saw it large & clear every morning for a couple of months.

It was awesome.

Wasn't able to see it through all my city's light pollution. It's Comet ISON time!!!

yeah, I had one clear night here, was very excited, and couldn't see a damn thint.