March 14th was a cold, windy and night as Wayne P. and I stood on the roof of NJAA Observatory. Wayne arrived just before me, and was scanning the horizon for Comet Pan-STARRS. As expected with the weather in NJ, there would be limited chances to view Pan-STARRS in its prime. The comet would appear just 10 degrees the horizon around 7:30 pm just after sunset.
After 10 minutes of scanning the horizon, the comet was finally spotted just over a few degrees above the trees. As predicted, the only way to see the comet was to go on top of the roof of NJAA. Not the best idea, but the higher location of the roof gave us a clear view. A quick check from the parking lot proved that the comet could not be observed from the ground. The sky cleared completely just as predicted by the Clear Sky Clock and www.wunderground.com. Unfortunately the wind was a constant nuisance the entire time. The temperature dropped into the 20s that night, not what you would expect for the month of March.
Comet Pan-STARRS imaged from the roof of NJAA Observatory with Canon 50D and Canon 300 IS, 2.5 sec exposure. ISO 800
The comet was quite spectacular with a bright nucleus and sparkling short tail. Viewing the comet against a dark sky background would have greatly improved the view. But alas the comet's close proximity to the Sun meant viewing the comet against the sunset sky. Just past 8 pm the comet was starting to sink down towards the trees. Before we knew it, the comet was gone. I took a few pictures with my Canon 50D and 300mm lens set on a small portable tripod. Obviously my picture of the Pan-STARRS is not going to win any astrophotography awards. But atleast it did show up quite well in my images.
Pan-STARRS fragmenting ??
Interestingly, an amateur astronomer Peter Rosen has discovered possible fragmentation of comet Pan-STARRS. He took cod video images using a 10 Newtonian and Image Source camera. His image shows a small dot near the nucleus of the comet that follows along with it. This is in contrast to the background stars which do not follow along with the comets movement.
Click here to see Peter Rosen's images of possible Pan-STARRS fragmenting
Comet Pan-STARRS Wed. March 20th at 7:30 PM
Comet Pan-STARRS March 18-25th.
During this week the comet will start to become slightly higher in the sky, but harder to view. On March Wed March 20th, the comet will be 14 degrees above the horizon.
Unfortunately, the comet is expected to fade. Secondly the Moon is going to become increasingly brighter each day as it heads towards full Moon on the 27th. Still, my gut feeling is that the effect of the Moon may be minimal. Right now Pan-STARRS is a sunset comet. Hence the added light from the Moon may be nothing compared to the brightness of the sunset sky. The greatest concern is how much the comet will fade. Luckily for us, there are some reports that the comet have become brighter than previously expected. Some estimates have placed it at magnitude 0.5 Mag!
If that is true, the comet may be brighter this week, than previously expected!
NASA has produced an excellent video about Pan-STARRS called "Sunset Comet"
Click here to watch Sunset Comet Video
Words of Wisdom!
Watch the weather forecast obsessively.
Keep a pair of binoculars handy and ready to go.
If the weather clears around sunset, find a good view of the western horizon
and start scanning around 7:30 pm.
William Anthony
NJAA Research Group Chair
No comments:
Post a Comment