Not the star of Betlehem

[abramson]

Have you guys seen comet Lovejoy? After a week of bad weather (even snow on the summer solstice!) we have clear skies. I go up at 4:48, having overslept a little, but got to see the beautie before the Sun glare started to wash it out. This picture was taken at 4:57, it's a 5 sec shot. Merry Christmas, folks.

Guillermo

Lovejoy-2011-12-23-s.jpg

[abramson]

Lovejoy 2011-12-24 (0413-0417) alta-m.jpg

Another view, today. There was fine volcanic ash in the air, with a lot of streetlight scattering. But a stack of 5 shots of 20 s gives this reasonable result, with the Southern Cross hanging above. If the weather stays good I will go to a darker place on Monday. Rather, if it gets better, too much ash now. Enjoy.

Guillermo

[Reiko]

Beautiful! Sadly I cannot see Lovejoy here due to it being cloudy for days.

[PlutonianEmpire]

Is comet Lovejoy situated that it can be seen from the southern hemisphere in the morning and western hemisphere in the evening, or is it in the morning in both hemispheres?

[abramson]

It is visible in the early morning from all the southern hemisphere.

Here's another one. Yesterday it was wonderful. Tail 25 degrees. Wind from teh south blew away the volcanic ash and we had a perfect observing night. Am I the only one observing this beauty? Is everybody else in the northern hemisphere, or just simulating the night sky instead of viewing it? At least Chuft should be enjoying the comet, if he's alright after the earthquake. Chuft, is everything OK?

63+64-s.jpg

IMG_0456-s.jpg

[Chuft-Captain]

Greetings Abramson,

I'm OK thanks.

Actually, I did try to see the comet a few nights ago, but there was a lot of low cloud at the time.
Aside from the cloud, being in the city means there is just too much light pollution. There are even several bright streetlights directly in the view to the east from my house...and Dec 23rd's magnitude 6 quake failed to knock out the power in my area (which would have improved viewing conditions) although 23,000 other houses were not so lucky.
I'm not sure that being able to view comets due to a power outage, makes up for all the negative effects of an earthquake.

I have however made an addon of the comet for Celestia:

Comet Lovejoy.zip

and if the addon's correct then that comet has sure picked up a hell of a boost from it's close encounter. According to the addon, it's traveled almost 1AU from the sun since Dec 16, so is probably now too far from the Sun to be visible to the naked eye (at least in my cloudy, light polluted, urban skies).

Cheers
CC

[abramson]

Comet Lovejoy was much dimmer yesterday. I couln't see it from downtown Bariloche, but from a dark rual place it was still a wondeful view. Click to view them a little larger, please.

Lovejoy 2011-12-30 (492-514) no cal s.jpg

Lovejoy 2011-12-30 (494) ISS s.jpg

Lovejoy 2011-12-30 (0517) s.jpg

[abramson]

At dawn...

Lovejoy 2011-12-30 (525) alba s.jpg

Lovejoy 2011-12-30 (525) alba anotada s.jpg

Lovejoy 2011-12-27 feliz 2012 s.jpg

[Chuft-Captain]

Hi Abramson,

I've tried to verify the Comet addon against your [second to last] photo. Without knowing exactly what time the photo was taken and the exact lat/long/altitude, I've made an educated guess based on your comments.

Doesn't seem too far off IMHO...

Comet Lovejoy from Bariloche.jpg