Comet passes Mars

Thanks Brian.

An OORT cloud comet, what an opportunity for new science exploration. Pity they didnt have time to plan a more dedicated close up rendezvous mission but they only discovered it last year.

I want to image this event. I'll try to look for a dark location where I can book a room for the night. I know its only 7ish and I dont need to stay overnight anywhere but I want to be in the safe vicinity of a B&bB front or backyard.

I checked on Stellarium and its seem like we'll have a decent window of half or more to view the event so not sure why they say we need to be in Southern Hemisphere.

Great photo by Damien Peach

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29665247

I'm afraid I failed, despite going to getting to a reasonable dark site near Sevenoakes, I was just too late 🙁

Tej

It would have been lucky shot I think Tej. Mag 12, 3 degrees above the horizon before it gets fully dark is a challenge to say the least. Damien uses iTelescope which is a worldwide network of expensive toys as far a field as Australia. Mind you, anyone can do it, Just join and pay per minute.

ITelescope!? I cant believe he gets an image published using that! Still, he took the smart route to guarantee some result.

Yeah, the odds were against me but it was still a constructive evening as I discovered a nice b&b perched on a hill for reasonable price with mostly open terrain and the skies were reasonably dark, not dark dark but certainly luxurious for Londoners. They were fully booked though last night but I am keeping it in mind for future reference as its relatively easily access for me with train straight from Peckham and a short cab drive.

Not sure what iTelescope your thinking of, but its this one  http://itelescope.squarespace.com

I know I just expect a photo by Damien Peach would be captured with his own equipment. The BBC page didnt mention it at all (it did mention it with someone else's black and white image though), so I assume its his own image capture and I marvelled at his achievement. If its using the Itelescope, I somehow wouldnt marvel it as his achievement so much. The Itelescope is a fantastic service though, dont get me wrong. And without it, we wouldnt see these hard to image events, which I am grateful for!

I know what you mean. Damien is talented, of that there is no doubt but there are others who do it themselves. I spent a couple of days at the end of last month being taught about some stuff by Gerald Rhemann. He is a Comet master. A lot of what he takes is done from south of Vienna.

http://www.astrostudio.at/all.php

iTelescope - so that's how he does it… ! Damien's photos are AMAZING!

Love the fact that iTelescope offer a Moon Discount in their rate card for when the moon is present 🙂