Comet C/2006P1 (McNaught)
Comet C/2006P1 (McNaught) from earlier this evening shortly after sunset. I’ve tried finding it both in the morning and the evenings during the past week and failed until this evening. It is actually quite bright. Mike and I could both see it naked eye (barely) this evening around 5:20pm. I didn’t realize a comet could be both a morning and evening object on the same day, but this comet is. The sun and the comet are nearly the same right ascension (within 5′) and the comet is about 12 degrees further north in altitude. Thus the comet just barely manages to appear before sunrise and after sunset. A clear view of the western (or eastern) horizon is necessary to see this comet. For us in Colorado right now it is only about 6 degrees above the horizon when it becomes visible 20-30 minutes after sunset. Also, depending how near you are to the foothills to the west you may lose much of that. I increased my search time window this evening by about 15 minutes by setting up on a hill in Broomfield about 10 miles east of here.
Image taken from Broomfield, CO at at 5:28pm MST with Stellarvue A1010 80mm refractor telescope and Canon Xti camera. (1/5th sec shutter at ASA 800 — slightly overexposed). Single image cropped and brightness reduced with Photoshop, noise filtered. I got to the site late and didn’t have time to setup notebook to check focus and exposure. Settings were close but not as good as they should have been. Image taken 2 minutes before it disappeared behind the foothils. Some blur due to poor focus and some due to tracking. Maybe I’ll get another try tomorrow before yet another blizzard moves into our area on Thursday.
January 9th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
It is to see that you are doing well and haven’t been completely buried with snow.
What do you think is the earliest that the comet is visible?.I would like to see if I can see it for myself but,since I will be on the road,headed for work at 5:30am,it makes it tough to stop and set up at that time.This would of course be for EST.
Good job!!!
January 9th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Mostly slush now, but that will all change in a couple days as another big storm is on the way. The comet is changing rapidly everyday and as I recall it will not be visible after Thursday (too close to the sun). In the evening, most people have been able to pick it up about 20 minutes after sunset. It is behind the mountains here about 20 minutes later (5:30 MST). It is getting brighter (0 to -1) with a longer and wider tail (now 3+ degrees long and curved) each day. I assume mornings it would be similar, probably visible about 30 minutes before sunrise. This is a pretty good comet, it would be spectacular in dark skies.
January 18th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
18 January 2006 -THE COMET WAS WELL VISABLE ON THE 16 JANUARY ABOUT 2-3 DEGREES ABOVE THE HORIZON IN THE FREE STATE SOUTH AFRICA AND IS NOW GOING HIGHER AND SLOWLY FADING AWAY TO THE WEST.CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE SIZE OF THIS COMET?