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Monday, June 30, 2014

MORE ON COMET PANSTARRS 2012 K1

After talking to fellow Saint John Astronomy Club member, Ed O about comet Panstarrs, it seems like some of my source info about the exact location of where the comet is in the sky was incorrect.  Ed reffered me to this star chart to show a very different location for the comet.  This explains why I was not able to locate it on the June 27 observing session.  Here is the updated, more accurate location...
View cometpanstarrsk1.jpg in slide show

Saturday, June 28, 2014

COMET PANSTARRS SEARCH

Location:  Little Lepreau, New Brunswick

Date Time:  June 27, 2014 2320hrs to 0015hrs

Weather:  Clear, 15 degrees Celsius, humid, no wind...lots of dew.

Equipment:  Canon 450 D, 18-55mm lens, tripod, 20x80 Binoculars

Attendance:  Myself

Objective:  To image and view Comet Panstarrs 2012 K1 which, according to Heavens-above.com was in Leo at this time.  This Comet has just entered Mars' orbit and is heading towards the Sun...it will pass behind the Sun on Aug 9, so anytime now is a good chance to view it.

Report:  First thing was to find the Comet...used camera with remote shutter control to take long exposure shots of the northwest sky in the general direction.  After two long exposure shots, Comet could not be located.  Scanned area with binos to no avail.

According to Curt of the SJAC the Comet is now at magnitude 7.3, but according to heavens-above, its magnitude 13...much fainter.  It could have been that the camera was not pointing in the right direction...the Comet may have gone down, out of sight.  It is suppose to be just above the tail of Leo in the direction of the Big Dipper.  The triangle of Leo could be seen, but the tail was down below the trees in the West, at observing time.  No observation of Comet Panstarrs 2012 K1 on this observing session.

Dew was a problem on this night...everything was coated shortly after setting up.  It was cool enough to keep the bugs down, though.

There was a reddish sky to the East all during this session, not sure what caused it, maybe lights from Saint John?  One satellite was seen in the northern sky going from west to east...one, faint shooting star was seen coming almost straight down in the North East across Cassiopeia.






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