[meteorite-list] Rob's Comet's Exciting Explosion Part II

From: MexicoDoug <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 25 06:41:32 2006
Message-ID: <00fc01c6f822$1b90d190$facc92ac_at_thedawning>

Hello Listees,

Rob's eerie green Comet has just exploded majestically as it has made time
receding from the Sun. This is fascinating and this is big news for Comet
people. OK, "exploded is dramatic" - I should say it had an unexpected
outburst and just got 5-10 times brighter while it was just on its way out
and ready to wane quickly. I'm sure if we were on the comet that would be a
mean explosion. It now kicks the butt of SW3 in brightness. As the Moon is
getting stronger, Wednesday night (tonight, and maybe one more night) is
basically the last chance unless something else fantastic happens like just
did to this comet 10 hours ago or so. Congratulations, Rob, your Comet just
turned into one of the top 6 or so performers of the last decade!

The outburst is nice! Here's a comparison with a normal consumer digital
camera nights of , widest angle setting (35mm equivalent zoom setting of a
35-200). Lat. _at_ 30?24' 20:50PM EDT (same time, 120 min after Sunset, and
place both days). Transparency was a little worse the second night, but a
great Milky Way sky both times.

www.diogenite.com/061024-25.jpg

The top is the evening of 2006 Oct 23 which is:
C/2006 M4 (SWAN) 2006 Oct. 24.04 UT: m1=5.9, Dia.= 8', DC=7 above average
transparency vis. LM = 6.0

The bottom is the evening of 2006 Oct 24 which is:
C/2006 M4 (SWAN) 2006 Oct. 25.04 UT: m1=4.4, Dia.= 8', DC=8 average
transparency vis. LM = 5.6

If you want to see the magnitudes of the comparison stars in the
side-by-side photo above, they here is a star chart showing the positions of
the comet both nights and magnitudes of the stars.:
www.diogenite.com/mag.jpg

The "C" shaped constellation is Corona Borealis, just under Hercules and
headed the Strongman's way. You can see how much the comet moved in two
night and guess very accurately based on that where it will be tonight. It
is not hard to find with binoculars. The comet is WNW.

The camera and photos were the same, however it was somewhat colder the
first night and better transparency, so the raw photos presented would have
to be adjusted - better to just compare to their respective comparison
stars.

Outburst +1.5 magnitude brightening!! First comet I have seen naked eye
since Kohoutek, thanks to the dark sky location. Still, C/2004 Q2 Machholz
was slightly more impressive in the binoculars, though. This (Rob's) comet
looked like a bright galaxy through the 10x50 consumer binoculars and during
the most steady view through them, a short tail could be seen - but only
under optimal conditions. The size of the comet reported was estimated in a
89mm Mak-Cassegrain telescope.

Best wishes, Doug

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: 2006 M4 (SWAN) dramatic brightening


> > Easily visible in Nautical twilight? I just saw M4 last time from a
> > dark sky, and it was similar to M13 in magnitude. Is something
> > changing - this bright magnitude sounds too good to be true? Can
> > someone else kindly confirm as it would be worth a 100 miles trip
> > now?
> >
> > I'll upload a photo of Corona Borealis and the comet from a section
> > of wide angle 35mm equivalent of the normal 135 film camera. It
> > isn't good, but the comet is perceptible and green 2006 Oct 24.04 UT.
> > (Taken last night EDT about 8:52 PM, 15 seconds exposure)
> > www.diogenite.com/061024-06UT.JPG (should have been saved as
> > 061024-04, not -06) Latitude 30?24' Vis. LM 6.
> >
> > The lower two stars of the "C" of Corona Borealis point to the comet
> > which is dim but the greenest speck on the image, half way from the
> > most counterclockwise star of CrB to the upper right corner of the
> > image.
> >
> > I'm not comparing this to the nice photos recently posted on the
> > internet, but posting it to to compare the
> > magnitude...photographically at least... less than 20 hours ago....
> >
> > Thanks kindly, Doug
>
>
Received on Wed 25 Oct 2006 06:41:17 AM PDT


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