Comet Jacques set for Irish skies tonight

Standard Toaster

Surprised this wasn't already a post on this here.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/onceinalifetime-spectacle-comet-jacques-set-for-irish-skies-tonight-30528537.html

It’s Comet Jacques and it could be the most patriotic comet to grace our skies.
The luminous green comet will be visible from Ireland this weekend as it is set to pass within 50 million miles of Earth.
The comet, discovered this year by Brazilian astronomers, is a bright, emerald colour because of the cyanide gas it releases in its wake.
The fireball should be easy for the naked eye to spot this weekend, but telescopes should be able to spot it for weeks to come.
Experts have reported the comet to be over 100,000 miles wide, which would be the same distance as travelling the circumference of the world four times.
Astronomy Ireland is urging people to get outside to try and spot the spectacle.

How to see and enjoy the Comet Jacques spectacle

1. The comet will be in the northeast after dark.
2. Look for the famous ‘W’-shaped constellation Cassiopeia.
3. Tonight, the comet will be close to the brightest star at the top left of the ‘W’, making it easy to spot for beginners.

More here
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/happy-times-comet-watchers-08202014/


I'll be keeping an eye out later!

encore1

Anyone know what the best time will be to spot it?

mickmackey1

There is plenty of misinformation in this report.

The comet is not visible to the naked eye and is fainter then it was two weeks ago.

Phrases like 'luminous green comet' and 'bright, emerald colour' are totally OTT.

This part of the sky is heavily populated with clusters and nebulae so the majority of casual observers with binoculars probably won't even correctly identify what they are looking at.

Another case of media hype getting in the way of the facts.

nuttyboy79

mickmackey1 wrote: »

There is plenty of misinformation in this report.

The comet is not visible to the naked eye and is fainter then it was two weeks ago.

Phrases like 'luminous green comet' and 'bright, emerald colour' are totally OTT.

This part of the sky is heavily populated with clusters and nebulae so the majority of casual observers with binoculars probably won't even correctly identify what they are looking at.

Another case of media hype getting in the way of the facts.

And it's around until mid September. The annual Star-b-q is this weekend so the cynic in me thinks someone contacted The Indo to try and hype it up as "Ireland's Biggest Star Party" was mentioned in the print edition today.

EoghanIRL

So no point in going out looking for it ??

nuttyboy79

EoghanIRL wrote: »

So no point in going out looking for it ??

If you have bino's or a scope. You wont see it with the naked eye.

Doom

Been out looking with binoculars. ...nothing to report

ankaragucu

Supposedly its to the left of the constellation Cassiopeia but as already said, thats a heavily populated part of the night sky.Looked through my own binos there as the sky has cleared a bit but have to admit I couldnt see it.

AndyBoBandy

I was out with a telescope PS70/700, not a pro by any means, but not a toys-r-us job either, the sky was/is clear where I am, (Rush, Co. Dublin so not massive amount of light pollution)

Found Cassiopeia easily with the naked eye, and scanned around it for 10-15 minutes with the scope, and found nothing but a couple of hundred stars that are not visible to the naked eye.
Certainly didn't see any green hue



Edit;
"Alas, I just went out to my back garden again to have one last try armed with the very useful map in the link posted by Standard Toaster above, and the clouds have come back! I can barely see any stars now."

ZeRoY

mickmackey1 wrote: »

The comet is not visible to the naked eye and is fainter then it was two weeks ago.

Couldnt agree more, got my Telescope rig out and imaged it and its very faint and small target even at 1000mm - granted my North East is fairly polluted but its not even a Bino Comet if you ask me. MAG10 on Stellarium while imaging.

Standard Toaster

ZeRoY wrote: »

Couldnt agree more, got my Telescope rig out and imaged it and its very faint and small target even at 1000mm - granted my North East is fairly polluted but its not even a Bino Comet if you ask me. MAG10 on Stellarium while imaging.

^ Can you post a pic of your attempt to image it?

Disappointed it's not easily visible even with binos.

Prenderb

I was out for a good 20-30 mins last night and saw nothing. Well, the Milky way, lots of lovely stars and cluster etc, but no sign of the comet either. I was disappointed myself, but was glad to see this morning that I'm not the only one! Using my trust 10x50s too.

Edit: Was looking at some photos I took last night. Is this it?

AndyBoBandy

Prenderb wrote: »

I was out for a good 20-30 mins last night and saw nothing. Well, the Milky way, lots of lovely stars and cluster etc, but no sign of the comet either. I was disappointed myself, but was glad to see this morning that I'm not the only one! Using my trust 10x50s too.

Irish media, 'baking cakes with crumbs'

nuttyboy79

Well I went out with my 10X50's too and like everyone else didn't see it, well I did because I had my bino's pointed in the right area but didn't know which faint blob it was

ZeRoY

Prenderb wrote: »

Edit: Was looking at some photos I took last night. Is this it?

Yes it is.

ZeRoY

Standard Toaster wrote: »

^ Can you post a pic of your attempt to image it?

Single Exposure as too noisy to even stack the 20 shots I did...

Standard Toaster

That's class ZeRoY

Popoutman

Saw it clearly last night with handheld 15x70 binos. No colour to report, but then again visual reports of colour in faint extended objects are rare.

If it's clear when I finish work tonight I might try and get the new Samsung SCB4000 on it, see if I can get any of that green glow.

(as an aside, you know you've stayed up too late when you see Orion rising in August..)

LUZ

so i got all excited tonight ready to go out with my camera and try and get a pic of the comet, my first time doing any night photos, ive uploaded one here, the arrow is what i think might be the comet... i easily found Cassiopeia, the milky way was quite clear as well but no sign of an obvious comet, definitely not visible without binoculars! . the shot is 30 secs and a load more stars showed up that werent visible to the naked eye. oh can someone tell me what the blurry sort of star is in the bottom right corner?? thanks.

coylemj

LUZ wrote: »

so i got all excited tonight ready to go out with my camera and try and get a pic of the comet, my first time doing any night photos, ive uploaded one here, the arrow is what i think might be the comet

Yes that's where Skymap says it should be tonight. Your photo confirms my suspicion that I had no hope of finding it in 8x binos. I could see Cassiopeia clearly from the back of my house with no street lights interfering with my vision but ne'er a comet was to be seen.

LUZ

cool, heres another one, basically what i could see from my garden. ive zoomed in to show what could also be jaques. lol.

coylemj

LUZ wrote: »

cool, heres another one, basically what i could see from my garden. ive zoomed in to show what could also be jaques. lol.

No, the comet would be to the lower-left of that point you've arrowed. What you've highlighted is possibly an open cluster called King 14.

dbran

My attempt at Comet Jacques last night. Interesting that it was moving very fast indeed and you could definately see it move from sub to sub.

Commet Jacques a.jpg

dbran

Hi

Here is a short AVI I made of Comet Jacques that I made at last nights Dublin Stargazers meetup at the sugar loaf. Each frame is 30 second exposure.

So ol Jacques was really motoring along

http://youtu.be/JjLHIzf91Dg

Best Regards

dbran

ZeRoY

LUZ wrote: »

oh can someone tell me what the blurry sort of star is in the bottom right corner?? thanks.

Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31)

ZeRoY

dbran wrote: »

My attempt at Comet Jacques last night. Interesting that it was moving very fast indeed and you could definately see it move from sub to sub.

I agree on this, each of my sub (20 between them) showed it move quite quickly

The Hill Billy

What a poorly-researched article. A 100,000 mile-wide comet? That's bigger than bleedin' Jupiter. The coma maybe, but not the comet.

Iancar29

My quick attempt on Saturday night .
20 x 4 seconds at ISO 4000 500mm f4 , manually tracked