Green comet heading our way.

G'day all.

For those that are interested, there is currently a green comet in our skies.
It is visible in the N.T. tonight and will be visible in Melbourne's skies on Monday 6th. It will be visible in the northern sky and at some stage it will be next to Mars.
Let's hope we have clear skies to see it properly.

Get your camera ready Adrian.

Regards Axtyr.

I've tried to look for it but it ain't there
I'll just hang around until it returns in 50,000 years or so, my eye sight is going to be a bit little worse by then




cheers moredeep

I went out last night around dark and couldn't find it. They did say an hour after sunset but no go. I went out about 9:30 and it had clouded over.

This Saturday the 11th it should be (allegedly) right next to Mars.

I will keep looking every night until I see it.

Regards Axtyr.

I am ready for it but to date all I have been able to get is some good time lapse of cloud.

I still can't see it. It is probably the big tree in the way.

Off the internet below.

Even though ZTF will be closest to Earth - about 42,000,000km away - on February 2, Tucker said: “It will be too low on the horizon for most people in Australia to see it.”
The best time for Australians to spot the ZTF comet is between 6 and 11 February, depending on your location.
“By then it has gone into our southern skies and is high enough for us to see,” Tucker said.



The depiction on the internet shows it still visible until about February 20th, but you will most likely need a telescope instead of binoculars.

Regards Axtyr.

I believe I got to see it tonight at about 10:00.

It was situated between the big tree and the neighbour's roofline. Through the little 10X25 binoculars it was a multicoloured spot in the sky.
I then got out the spotting scope and cranked that up to 60X but it wasn't much better. It's not a very good scope, just one I use at 100metres at most, preferably less.

Look for Mars, then the bright star Aldebaran above it. Draw a line from Aldebaran through Mars and down to the horizon. It will be a little to the right of that line close to the horizon.

It is very low on the horizon. Can't wait for it to get higher in the sky.

Regards Axtyr.

No show from my back yard that is for sure. It is below the tree line and too much sky glow. Maybe if I get up on the roof with the tripod and camera.

The only way to get away from trees and sky glow in Canberra is to go up into the Snowy mountains. I am not going to do that for a kitchy piddlin comet no matter what colour it is.
When we moved into this house ( near the top of a hill) we had un-interupted views of the mountains...Now all we can see are trees, trees and more bloody trees..trillions of trees.

Clear skies again and it was visible. Unless you are looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.
You can see it with the naked eye but even with my binoculars you can't see the tail. The easiest way to find it is to look for the sparkling star on the horizon.
It looks like a disco ball speck, unlike the other stars.

Given the difference in location between the 2 nights, I can't see it moving next to Mars by Saturday unless the turbo charger kicks in

Regards Axtyr.

Hmmm? Maybe like a Chinese Balloon.

All I can see is the floaties in my eyes from learning to weld many a year ago
fingers crossed I'll see it b4 the clouds beat me.



cheers moredeep

Axtyr wrote:Clear skies again and it was visible. Unless you are looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.
You can see it with the naked eye but even with my binoculars you can't see the tail. The easiest way to find it is to look for the sparkling star on the horizon.
It looks like a disco ball speck, unlike the other stars.

Given the difference in location between the 2 nights, I can't see it moving next to Mars by Saturday unless the turbo charger kicks in

Regards Axtyr.

It is moving across the sky pretty swiftly coz it is close to us at approx 26 million km away from Earth...Sounds a lot but is pretty close for a comet.

Here is roughly where it is at. today. (Southern Hem)
In the constellation Auriga slightly West of North. just a tad above the Northern horizon at near to 2100hrs tonight.
  Auriga covers approx 36 degrees of sky so search wide.    

See Auriga on this planisphere for  2100hrs tonight


Light from the comet is currently taking approx 2 minutes to reach us...It take 8 minutes for sun light to reach us..
So there ya go; The light that we see from the sun and the comet and the stars is actually older than the light being emitted at any one time in relation to Earth. Which means that when we look at the stars we are looking at light Back to their future....which means that we can never see light emitted from the big bang at the beginning of creation. because that light has long since passed us by. The future of the stars is extinction and we are seeing stars closing in on their extinction.

Had another look for ZTF last night but the brown smokey haze hanging above the horizon destroyed any chance of seeing the comet. I even went out of town to an open area with a clear view of the horizon up to approx 30 degrees alt . Capella was sparkling in the haze or maybe it was Aldabaran, I dunno ?? but not much of anything else. Pleiades was just visible a bit around to the NW ish. I fired of a few shots off on the chance of catching ZTF (camera sees more than my eyes) but no go.

I went out last night at about 9:30 and I could see it from the lower section of the back yard, however it still wasn't above the neighbour's roof line. We were looking at the comet when we heard a large sound coming from next door and there was a red light inside the neighbour's garage. Nobody has lived there for years. I got the torch and flashed it into the garage but the light was still there. I went out the front shining the torch toward the garage and there was a vehicle parked in the driveway. I was trying to see the number plate but something was in the way. I confronted the guy and he was giving really lame excuses and I saw that he had placed tape over his number plate.
I told my wife to call the police and even though he said he had a legitimate excuse to be there he got in his car and drove off with a full trailer.

I think we was going to dump his junk there. I gave the police his rego but I doubt they would do anything. An exciting night overall. Maybe next time I will take "my little friend".

Regards Axtyr.

Very bizarre tonight. I was looking at what I believe to be the comet and then it disappeared. A while later it reappeared.
I got the binoculars but still couldn't see it until it showed itself again. I was watching through the binoculars and it appeared and disappeared a couple more times. There was no cloud that I could see anywhere near it. Quite strange.

Regards Axtyr.

It really has me beat in regard to where this thing is.


North is upside down in relation to Australia but the location of Orion's Belt and Betelgeuse seem to be correct from my vantage point.
I don't think I am seeing the comet because from the picture it should be just below Mars and I can see nothing anywhere near Mars.

The mind boggles, regards Axtyr.

Tonight  between 2130 and 2230 I fired off 50 pics of the clear night sky (with Nikon P1000) all around Mars and the pleiades and every where within 30 degrees of Mars and there was absolutely nothing even remotely resembling a comet in any of the pics. I think somebody is having us on.

PS;
This what it should look like.....If you run off a few shots and image stack them....Lets face it, this is less than a toy comet. If it returns in another 50,000 years it will be too soon.
If this comet has been lurking out there for the past 50,000 years you have to wonder what else might be on its way back.....Maybe Voyager will return one day.

Tonight (Sat 11th Feb) should be a little easier to determine where to look as the comet is within 1 degree of Mars.  That means you should be able to get both Mars and C2022E3ZTF in a single 35mm DSLR frame (or similar size sensor).

I managed to locate it last night (10th Feb) and used a Nikon FX DSLR on a GEM to (celestial tracking mount although not necessary for single images if using <20 to 30sec exposures). Hoping to do the same or better "fingers crossed tonight", clouds and weather permitting.  50,000 years is a long time between drinks.

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Me thinks there is too much light pollution where I am. I could easily see one of Elon's satellite go by, it was extremely bright.

I certainly couldn't see it with the naked eye and couldn't make anything out with the binoculars.

Didn't Voyager make it back already in the first Star Trek movie????

To those that will be able to see it I wish you the best of luck.

Regards Axtyr.

tonight's the NIGHT!

Clouds rolled in over the northern horizon however I did manage to just get a few shots, and before the comet moved behind a bunch of trees and on its way below the horizon eventually.  Taken with a full frame (FX) Nikon DSLR with both comet and Mars in the same frame, hopefully you should be able to tell which is which   .

This was an underwhelming comet especially with all the media hype.  The funniest thing was reports of people seeing it around various suburbs of Melbourne before it even started to appear above the horizon.. but why let facts get in the way of a good news story I guess.  That's it for the next 50,000 years as far as this one is concerned, not bothering again unless something extraordinary makes it more visible/brighter/longer whatever.

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I agree 4rd,maybe it was to much RED wine in the system looking for a GREEN comet? I should have been looking for a BROWN comet
I guess I was very spoiled by Haley's comet back in the mid eighties, now that was a comet



cheers moredeep

Cloud rolled in and spoiled any chance I had of seeing anything. The breaks in the cloud weren't long enough to get a fix on Mars with my spotting scope.
I'll be ready for it the next time it comes around.

Regards Axtyr.

Well we had clear sky's (sort of) last night and the comet was very very very elusive.
I had to imagine that I saw the comet;  also many star link Musket satellites cut through most of the 25 shots.
This pic is the best I could get and I have to assume that the little blue dot up near the power lins to be ZTF......Do not know what the smudge to the right of Mars is?... Lens: 135mm F1.8 !SO 800 exp 10 seconds.

I had the Skywatcher Tracker Pro running with the P1000 attached and got a nice night sky vid but still could not see anything that might have been the comet.
   Who knows? The Shadow knows.

You nailed it Adrian,  except the comet is the smudge and the 'blue' dot has a designation of HD29763 (a.k.a. Tau Tauri).

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Thanks for that heads up.
No wonder I was having trouble . I was looking for something much brighter than that little smudge. .
I will have another crack at it before it disappears. Will try using different ISO and exp times and smaller F stop to try and sharpen the image from this cheapy 135mm  lens. Although It has given good results with Halleys  & McNaught's Comet . .. Of course they were real comets , not little fizzers like this ZTF tiddler.   .

4rd wrote:Tonight (Sat 11th Feb) should be a little easier to determine where to look as the comet is within 1 degree of Mars.  That means you should be able to get both Mars and C2022E3ZTF in a single 35mm DSLR frame (or similar size sensor).

I managed to locate it last night (10th Feb) and used a Nikon FX DSLR on a GEM to (celestial tracking mount although not necessary for single images if using <20 to 30sec exposures). Hoping to do the same or better "fingers crossed tonight", clouds and weather permitting.  50,000 years is a long time between drinks.

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Curious photograph??
Notice how there are far fewer stars visible to the left of the comet than to the right  side of the pic, Was it a cloudy night or possibly a significant interstellar dust cloud??
    Also there appears to be a very faint greenish large patch of light towards the centre of the pic and to the right of the comet.
Use averted vision.

This is what I mean by greenish smudge
Used the tricky filters in the P1000 to bring it out .

.

Hi Adrian, the photo was stretched and black point set possibly to dark to bring out more of the comet however as you've picked up that meant loss of other detail.  More to do with my quick processing, interesting though to see the extra stretch you've applied in camera and how it further enhanced the green coma.  Tracking wasn't too good either as those dots certainly don't look round at that magnification.  Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) was more interesting and easier to target due to it's magnitude/brightness as well as several days/weeks higher above the horizon and consistently clear/cloudless skies.

Looks like being cloudy here for the next few nights, so may not see ZTF again.