Another exciting comet is in the sky for our viewing and photographing pleasure. Comet 8P/Tuttle is brightening fast and could reach magnitude 6 in January. It is currently magnitude 8 and can be seen between Cepheus and Casseopia. It will appear as a fuzzy grey patch in small scopes, larger scopes will show the greenish colour. On December 30th it will pass very close to M33 (~0.4 degrees).

Various finder charts:
http://aerith.net/comet/catalog/0008P/2008.html
http://media.skyandtelescope.com/documents/CometTuttle_DecFndr_BW.pdf
http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/8P.gif

Three images of Comet 17P/Holmes are now in my HAA Gallery.

Providing you c-c-can handle the c-c-cold, and know what to look for, Comet Holmes is still a naked eye object if you use averted vision.
The fact that my scope was already set up and at the ambient temperature in the d’observatory prompted me to take advantage of the brief advent of clear sky, last night.
In the 9×50 finderscope, Holmes appears somewhat similar to M33 in binoculars at a dark sky site. The telescopic view is, naturally, larger and brighter but the halo is now quite diffuse and I’m not sure if I saw the nucleus, off-center, or a star shining through.
Higher power may have provided the answer but that would have meant switching eyepieces which would have meant taking off my gloves and, well, you get the picture.
From Holmes, I wandered up to Cassiopeia to check out the colourful double Eta Cass., NGC 457 (the ET cluster), open cluster M103, and open clusters NGC 654 & 663 which, though I’m pretty sure I’ve seen before, I haven’t previously logged.
At that point, my feet started to reach the ambient temperature so I packed up, but just having that hour under clear skies felt good. Apparently, the next clear sky opportunity will be the middle of next week, maybe, so get out when you can.

Ed Smith sent in these links about everyone’s favourite comet:

http://www.meade4m.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?ID=409

http://www.astroleague.org/index.html

Yet another change worth noting. Thanks Ed!

Introduction

Here are reports on the recent readings from the LOFAR II radio antenna, and their compliance with GOES 10, 11 & 12 readings.

I became involved with this project, at my own expense, to involve HAA with a network of like observatories, work on solar (‘stellar evolution’) research, make contributions to variable readings, compare our results with satellite output (So far, we have been right on the money!) and supply data to HAA membership that might wish to know about sunspots developing, meteor showers, auroral activity and, if we’re lucky, GRB’s. The learning curve has been steep. I have two domiciles to manage and am involved with numerous other activities. So, working on this project has been whenever I have been able to find blocks of time. It is not like visual-photographic-spectroscopic studies where the target is either acquired or it is not. There is not a radio system, anywhere, that is ‘turnkey’. Most of the time, one is ‘feeling’ one’s way along the procedure. You can’t see the image. Several weeks ago, I had almost given up, after 8 months. Then, things started to happen. It seemed that it was too good to be true. However, it is not. We have a great system here and it works independent of weather, all day, every day! Like SNO, it is totally indoors. We now have two receivers: one operating @ 0.52-30 mHz and 87.6-108.6 mHz; the other @24.0 kHz. It is truly an ITT – information technology telescope.

November 10, 2007

At 9:43 PM our signal is ~1.25 V which is exactly where it should be for a quiescent sky condition at night. Saw Comet Holmes in binoculars earlier this evening, too. Skies are full of water vapour and not very transparent.

November 12, 2007

There were some unsettled readings (minor) from 8:30AM-12:55PM EST and 1:53-3:07PM EST. All were below an A-class but exerted some minor influences on our readings. They were confirmed with GOES 10,11,12 satellite readings.

November 13, 2007

Tonight, at 8:30-9:20 PM EST, we had a bottom-line A-class x-ray emission from the sun. I don’t know when it was ejected, but it hit the ionosphere at the above time.

From ~9:53-10:04 PM EST my cable was reduced to an ‘antenna’ that allowed HTZ FM(air signal) to swamp WNED FM(cable station) during this lull between low-level x-ray bursts. When the second burst hit at 10:04 PM EST the cable signal had already recovered, but through-the-air transmission of WNED FM suffered interference. Again, this is confirmed with GOES data!! This ‘guy’ is going to be one of HAA’s most valuable assets.

November 25, 2007

Sunday, November 25/2007 @ 00:30 we were hit by a very minor solar outburst. It is shown on the GOES 11 satellite site and we had a significant voltage rise and fall over that period of time ~00:15 – ~01:30.

December 2, 2007

We had a beauty of a B5 flare from the sun at ~ 3:00 PM EST that GOES 11 nailed. Sadly, we missed it because we were too close to sunset. So, it hit the other ‘side’ of the world and not us.

December 6, 2007

We show an output curve close to the GOES data. There is nothing spectacular beyond a mid-A output. However, it very closely resembles the GOES readings.

Our readings should be ~ -1.25 to -1.50 V @ 12:11 noon and we are getting ~0.0. This would indicate a rise in general solar activity, much of it probably having to do with the ‘new’ sunspot group.

December 11, 2007

SUNSPOTS — We are getting quite a steady and strong ‘wind’ from the sun. LOFAR II voltages are ~1V too high. It is hitting us at a B-level and is probably due to that monster sunspot grouping dead in the middle of the sun. The radiation from it is very intense and, I assume, very steady. It is about 1/10th of the sun in diameter. That would make it 10 Earths wide!!

December 18, 2007

You can see how much Stanford loves us!!!! Maybe we’ll be invited down for a talk or to see the solar centre. I may go to SAS in 2008 to present our spectral work and LOFAR II. Her remarks refer, I assume to all of our mailings, but this follows on the heels of Dec. 18/07 UT. -Mike

> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:36:15 -0800
> From: dscherrer@solar.stanford.edu
> To: rasc2010@hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: LOFAR II – data for Dec. 18/07
>
> D*mn, you are blowing us away here. This is awesome!!!!
>
> Debbie
>
> Michael Jefferson wrote:
> > Hi Deb, This is a beauty! We bagged a C-1 @ UT 13:14!! and it is
> > right on the money with GOES. A second C is a 0.5 @ UT 20:51 and is ~ 2
> > hr.s behind GOES which I think may be due to us rotating away from it
> > and we are going into sunset at the time. It is way down in the evening
> > trough!!! Cheers!

At about 1am Sat morn of 24 Nov, a small asteroid will occult a star that will pass close through our area. If you are interested in trying to capture this event, I have some information below.

The asteroid is 351 Yrsa which is a 40km wide mag 12.6 object. It will occult star TYC 1316-01762-1 which is mag 9.9. (The star is located between Taurus and Gemini) This means the light will be reduced from 9.9 to mag 12.6 (the magnitude of the asteroid).

Below is a map of the occultation path.

Path of asteroid occultation

The path image by default is only showing the western portion of North America. If you save the image to your local drive (or if using Firefox, use View Image), it will show the entire area included. You should see that the path passes right along the southern edge of Lake Ontario near us.

It will pass through our area at approx 06:04:32 UTC (01:04:32 EST) and will last for up to 5.3 seconds. The star’s position is at
RA: 05D 54M 54.4258S DEC: +18D 04M 50.879S (Degrees, Minutes, Seconds).

Binbrook Conservation area will be within the uncertainty limits. Ideal might be a road trip to the NW of Torontowould be an area between Burlington to Oakville or west of this area (thanks Glenn), or the Niagara-on-the-Lake area.

More details can be found at: This link including some sky charts.

Good hunting. I guess I should make it clear that I won’t be able to participate in this particular expedition (other obligations). This is for you intrepid explorers to find on your own.

At 1:30-ish in the morning of Sunday, November 18, 2007, the sky in Burlington was clear, and Comet Holmes was visible, right beside Mirfak (Alpha Persei).

I took four pictures of Holmes from outside my front door, and here’s an excerpt of one of them. Canon Digital Rebel 300D; Tamron 300mm lens @f/2.8; ISO 400; 71 second exposure.

Cheers!

Bob Christmas

************ UPDATE ************

Here’s “Take 3” of Comet Holmes, right above Mirfak, at about 11:00 pm Sunday Night (November 18, 2007). Equipment and settings as above, but 74 second exposure:

… in the same magnification as the one earlier Sunday Morning:

… and here’s the same image, close up on the comet:

Our third attempt to observe a grazing lunar occultation was unsuccessful, but all agreed that the night of observing was still a big success.

It should be noted that the Clear Sky Clock said that it would be overcast all night, but our favourite weather goddess said that it would clear later in the night. So who are you going to trust? That’s right, so even though it was snowing at the time, Jim W., Jackie F. and I agreed to meet Don P. at Binbrook for the occultation, with the knowledge that it would clear eventually. As Don and Jim set up at the windsurfing parking lot in the park, which was about 500 meters closer to the center line than the hill, Jackie and I searched the skies for the moon with our binoculars. A few brief glimpses of our nearest neighbour through the clouds kept our spirits up, but we knew that there was to be no 7.8 magnitude stars cutting through the overcast. By occultation time there was not even a hint of the moon, and we could do nothing but console each other with the knowledge that this time we had at least seen the moon, which was better than the last two attempts.

Don brought his field kettle, Jackie brought hot cocoa and Jim brought his propane heater, and so after a goodly long while in the cold and dark we huddled together to warm ourselves, inside and out. My thanks to all for making this chill night more warm and bearable.

As the night wore on a small break to the north gave us the promise of seeing Comet Holmes, and soon all binoculars were searching the skies. As if Binbrook held some magical quality, a large and very transparent hole appeared directly over the park and stayed there for the remainder of the night, allowing us to observe the comet and many other wonderful sights. The comet was directly beside Mirfak, and as I had not seen it for a few days, I was interested to see how it had changed. It was barely visible to the naked eye, partly because it has been dimming, but also partly because of its proximity to Mirfak, which cast enough glare to interfere with the comet. Don’s little achromat showed a lovely disk to Mars, and we were able to discern dark surface markings, a sure sign that Mars is nearing its closest approach in a little over a month, and a testament to the fine optics of Don’s scope. The open clusters of the winter constellations, the Andromeda galaxy, the Pleiades, and a good look at not just the great nebula, but all the regions in the sword of Orion were part of a fine night of observing through Don’s scope. The seeing was excellent and the transparency was good too, as we could pick out the winter Milky Way quite easily. Don may have even spotted Uranus through the clouds that surrounded our magical window over the park – not an easy feat! Jim put his scope to good use by obtainig some fine images of the moon, which he shared with the rest of us. Finally, we were able to observe both the moon and the star that had earlier been occulted, thus bringing us one step closer to our first successful grazing occultation session.

We carried our good spirits to the nearest Tim Horton’s for the traditional observer’s doughnuts and coffees, and finished a fine night with good conversation and company. Indeed, another successful occultation expedition for the HAA.

Update by Don Pullen

Excellent report John and my thanks for doing this.

It really was a good night. It was the cloest we’ve come to having success with a lunar grazing occultation in our 3 attempts. As John indicated, we saw the moon peaking through the clouds up to half an hour before the time approached, but then we got socked in by clouds. By the time they cleared over the moon again an hour after the time for the occultation, we could see the star approximately 1 moon diameter away. So close. Next time we’ll nail it!

I had a great time with Jim, Jackie and John. I guess the afternoon snow scared everyone else away, but when the hole opened up, we had very steady skies and great seeing for several hours. We even saw a few meteors whose radiant appeared to be the early stages of the Leonids. Well worth the trip and cold temps. We were lucky that there wasn’t any wind until late which helped to keep the low temps more bearable.

I can hardly wait for our next try. At least we’re getting closer and eventually we’ll bag a proper grazing occultation. My thanks for the fun company last night – we really do have a great observing and sociable club.

I did get a chance to get out and do some imaging last weekend and also a few days ago. I wanted to try IC 1805 Heart Nebula. Well what can I say… other than this is one tough object. TimH told me one day that IC meant ‘I can’t C’ 🙂 Funny, but true. For this object I had to process my individual raw file and stretch with levels in order to get a bearing on where it was on the frame… then I attempted to re-frame it. This took me a good half hour. Then I started the 3min exposures at ISO 1600 totalling up to 2.5 hrs. After stacking, I saw absolutely nothing but then loaded it in PS and tried to work some magic with layer masks, curves, filters… you name it I did it. Anyway in conclusion: it is possible to image a faint hydrogen alpha target with an unmodded DSLR camera and no LP filter under mag 5.5 skies… but not without a lot of work. It was pretty much overhead at the time so that probably really helped.

Canon 40D with 80mm APO (full frame)

Holmes, Mirfak and Mellote 20 taken with the camera lens… which was piggybacked.

KerryLH

I added a comment to a posting more than a week ago that Hubble was scheduled to look at Comet Holmes. I’ve been looking around since then to find them. Well finally some of the pictures have been released.

Follow the link to BadAstronomy blog site to see some of the pictures.
Comet Holmes

One of the pictures show a montage with a ground based image taken by Alan Dyer. I think some of our club members have taken images that easily compare. Way to go HAA AP’ers!