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Comet C/2012 K5 is ready for chasing

Started by Tonk , Nov 14 2012 05:13 AM
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145 replies to this topic

#76 tboss70

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Posted 01 January 2013 - 08:26 PM

I just set up and took a quick 2o second exposure. It looks much better with no slight overcast and moon out.
I could see a very bright coma at only 20 seconds (900 mm FL; ISO800 with 350d)
Im running several 1 minute exposure right now. Pictures later tonight.

#77 norton67

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Posted 01 January 2013 - 09:04 PM

I got a peek at it tonight. There was a break in the clouds just long enough to see a smudge with my 12x50 binoculars.

#78 tboss70

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Posted 01 January 2013 - 10:09 PM

Dang it! 50 seconds at 900mm FL is just a little too long. She's movin' quick! For my 900mm I bet 30-40 seconds may be the max.

#79 tboss70

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Posted 01 January 2013 - 11:41 PM

Not much to talk about but here it is. Tomorrow night I'll try 30-40 second exposures at a higher ISO.

Attached Thumbnails

  • 5600549-lin.jpg

#80 tboss70

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Posted 01 January 2013 - 11:47 PM

If anyone is interested, this was at 900mm FL.

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  • 5600552-zsettings.jpg

#81 Tonk

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 05:26 AM

Looks like my observing has been curtailed by the weather for at least a week - just when the comet is at it most interesting with its rapidly changing viewing angle now that Earth has passed through teh comets orbital plane a few days ago :(

Has anyone been observing this comet in the last 2 days? The posts here have suddenly stopped :shrug:

#82 Aquarellia

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 05:39 AM

Hi, thanks for posting here as well. In South France the sky is ok, maybe another view tonight.
It's amusing to see that the comet tail is now after the coma.
As a sketcher... I post in another place, look at :
http://www.cloudynig...5583470/page...
Sorry for that.

Attached Thumbnails

  • 5604118-image.jpg

#83 tboss70

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 02:19 PM

I have a few pictures from the 2nd but its moving so quickly that at 900mm fl and 20-30 second exposures its still trailing in my photos....just ever so slightly.

Weather looks good for me tonight so I am going to try autoguiding on the comet itself to get longer exposures.

Does anyone have suggestions for settings in Metaguide or PHD when guding on the comet? Are there any special settings I should be aware of?

#84 canukLX90

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 02:48 PM

Thanks to everyone for posting their observations, photos,
and sketches of this comet. I observed / imaged the comet
on 29 December and 01 January. It really is moving quite
quickly being only 0.3 AU from earth according to SkyTools.

I guided on the comet for my images ( to be posted later )
using PHD. I used the TMB90 and DSI with 3 second sub
setting in PHD. This gave a SNR of 8 which was good enough
to track the comet while imaging with the main OTA.

Cheers

PJ

#85 tboss70

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 03:16 PM

Thanks PJ.

#86 canukLX90

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 06:55 PM

Here is a quick processed image of the comet taken the night
of 02 January. 6 X 2 minutes @ ISO 800 with 450D DSLR using
PowerNewt at F 2.8 and guiding on comet using the TMB92L,
DSI and PHD. Even a 30 second sub showed comet nucleus
stretching when not guiding on the comet.

PJ

Attached Thumbnails

  • 5605379-C_2012_K5_web6.JPG

#87 tboss70

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 07:59 PM

Nice one PJ. I tried to guide on the comet but I just couldnt find it with my 50mm finder and a SPC900 webcam. :-p

#88 Wino24

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Posted 04 January 2013 - 11:50 PM

Hi all...I'm more of a lurker than a poster, but I feel compelled to post after seeing this comet. C/2012 K5 is the first comet I have ever seen in a telescope and I have to say...it was very impressive. I had tried to find a few weeks ago with my 4.5 Newt but had no luck. Santa brought me an Aperatura AD10 and tonight was the fist real opportunity I had to use it. Well the extra aperature sure made the difference. I was able to find it fairly easy...a faint fuzzy, but definitely observable. I was amazed to see just how fast it was moving. I couldn't stop watching it...amazing!! Anyone know what the magnitude of it is...Stellarium said 10.66 but I knwo those numbers can be wrong. The seeing was great tonight...I didn't want to back in it for the evening...saw many open clusters as well tonight...A great night for me tonight. Clear skies!

#89 Alan S

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Posted 05 January 2013 - 10:48 AM

I observed and sketched this comet last night from my observatory- I am poor at estimating magnitudes but it seemed to be between 10 and 10.5. It is moving quickly to the southwest...

Report and sketch are on my blog The Lost Pleiad Observatory

#90 Rich (RLTYS)

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Posted 05 January 2013 - 01:35 PM

I was also able to observe K5 Linear with my 10" refl, last evening. Despite light pollution and bright skies I was able to follow K5 Linear as it moved in a southerly direction. In the hour and 10 minutes I observed Linear it moved at least 1/4 degree, a fast moveing comet.

Rich (RLTYS)

#91 Dave Mitsky

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Posted 05 January 2013 - 03:15 PM

I got back pretty late from the January DVAA meeting last night. (It's a long drive for me to King of Prussia.) With the upcoming moonrise, it was too late to go to the Naylor Observatory and I wasn't sure if the driveway was passable after the fairly recent snowfall anyway so I decided to see if I could spot Comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) from my light-polluted neighborhood through a Celestron Ultima 10x50 binocular. The comet passed just to the west and south of El Nath (Beta Tauri) last night.

http://cometchasing....ets/2012_K5.pdf

http://www.virtualte...01/C2012k5_f...

I walked down the street to a spot where some tall evergreens provide a bit of respite from the local houselights and began scanning the area around Beta Tauri. It was quite cold. I could easily see seventh-magnitude stars in the area but not the ninth-magnitude-or-so comet. While I was still in the shadow of the trees, I had a look at Jupiter, Collinder 70, the Hyades, Melotte 20, M34, M35, M36, M37, M38, M41, M42, M44, M45, M47, NGC 2244, and NGC 2264.

Later on, I gave the comet another go with my Burgess 15x70s. Even with the additional magnification and aperture, the results were the same.

By the way, the link to the image that I mentioned previously is working again.

http://www.cometpiec...13lrgbweb_2.jpg

Dave Mitsky

#92 siriusandthepup

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Posted 05 January 2013 - 09:49 PM


Thanks for your map. I used it to locate the comet a few minutes ago. I wasn't going to drag out a scope tonight, but got to talking to a buddy in KY about it and the enthusiasm revived.

It's about 40 deg. outside, the ground is wet, and we have about the worst dewing conditions imaginable. But - it's clear and fairly transparent. (central Texas suburbs)

Brought out the 16" f/4.4 from 65 F inside to 40 outside. Heh, heh - yeah you guys know how it looked. Put in the 14mm Pentax and commenced scanning around. It was located quickly and I was surprised how bright it looked - thought it was gonna be dimmer. 10th mag? No official estimate, just a wild guess.(I am lucky to have approx. 6th mag stars at the zenith here)

Even without going to a higher mag (pointless with the rapidly cooling optics) the fuzz seemed to sport a tail - not long or sharp - more diffuse and broad and not very long either - maybe an arc minute total cometary length - think Jupiter worth of tail.

Here is the fun part: This comet is totally smoking along it's trail!! You can tell movement against the background stars in minutes. Major movement apparent in ten minutes.
Wow! I don't recall seeing a comet move so fast before. It's worth looking at this for that alone.

Have fun.

#93 Jure Atanackov

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 07:47 AM

I observed C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) last night from a local 900 m high hill under a so-so SQM 21.2 sky. Naked eye limiting magnitude in the area of comet was 6.9. The comet was obvious in 7x50 binoculars, with about 15' of tail visible. Rapid motion was obvious in minutes.

C/2012 K5 (LINEAR)

2013 Jan 05.87UT: m1=8.1 dia=5' DC=5 ...7x50B, Jure Atanackov (Grmada, Slovenia)[Tail 15' long. SQM21.2, NELM6.9 in the area of comet.]

CS!Jure

#94 Patricko

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 11:12 AM

Hi everyone, I was able to re-observe this fast moving comet again last night at my intown location. My 4.5" Starblast reflector and 26mm Meade 4000 eyepiece allowed for it to be framed nicely in the same FOV as OC NGC 1746. I never realized until tonight what a beautiful cluster NGC 1746 really is and plan to revisit it.

C/2012 K5 at low power in the scope clearly showed the tail elongation. Upping the power to ~45x gave a much more contrasty view and exposed more "texture" variation. I felt as if I could almost see the comet moving with careful study. After putting the small reflector up I grabbed my 15x70mm binoculars and used them handheld to study the comet. Tonight the small 4.5" reflector showed the most detail at ~45x.

Conditions were cold and there was moisture in the atmosphere but even so the Merope Nebula in M45 was seen in both instruments. Not a bad night.

#95 Patricko

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Posted 06 January 2013 - 11:13 AM

Good observation with just 7x50mm binoculars Jure. Your sky conditions that night sound like they were pretty awesome.

Clear skies,
Patrick

#96 John Wunderlin

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 01:12 PM

Here is a video I made last night of the comet's motion over about an hour. Each frame is a 30 second exposure and this is 30 frames/second:

https://www.youtube....h?v=ZG8E7Oo777g

#97 John Wunderlin

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 01:14 PM

For best viewing, set the quality to 'original' and view full screen. I should add- this was actually over 2 hours of data total, but the nucleus disappears from the screen after about an hour of data.

#98 Centaur

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 02:53 PM

I’ve improved the graphics on both my comets and asteroids webpages for near-Earth objects (NEO). The overhead views from above the ecliptic plane now show the orbits colorized. This is to make it clearer when a minor body is “above” (north) or “below” (south) the ecliptic plane. Some of the bodies have orbits highly inclined to the ecliptic and the relationship between the two orbital planes needed to be made more obvious.

I hope you find the diagrams useful. They can be seen by going to my comets or asteroids webpages after clicking www.CurtRenz.com/astronomical or going directly to www.CurtRenz.com/comets or www.CurtRenz.com/asteroids

#99 Scanning4Comets

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 03:48 PM

John , that video is INCREDIBLE! :waytogo:

:bow:

#100 John Wunderlin

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Posted 07 January 2013 - 04:12 PM

John , that video is INCREDIBLE!


Thanks, Marcus! I'm still working out the kinks in my processing steps, but I think it came out pretty well. I'm hoping to process the stack later today to get some details around the nucleus.

This was guided on a star because the comet is too faint for my 80mm guidescope and I didn't have time to swap my equipment around last night. I pre-processed all my raw frames with flats, darks and bias in DeepSkyStacker, then ran them through ImageMagick using a script I built in UltraEdit text editor in order to stretch the frames by the same amount. Then I brought all the frames into Cyberlink Power Director and set the frame length to .02 seconds and built the video to upload to youtube.

If anyone has a better workflow than this please share!
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