Saturday, December 27, 2014

Here Comes Another Comet Lovejoy

Terry Lovejoy has done it again...another comet he discovered is becoming a nice object. This one is Comet Lovejoy 2014 Q2. He discovered it back in August and it has been a southern sky object but as it approaches Earth, it is moving into the northern sky. I finally got it tonight after fighting weather and my own busy schedule.

I went out to one of my usual spots at the end of Speedway in Tucson. This is the Douglas Spring Trailhead at Saguaro National Park East. It is about a 10 minute drive from where I live so it is reasonable dark to the southeast. Comet Lovejoy was faintly visible to the naked eye and easy in 10x42 binoculars. I took some pics but accidentally had my camera set in JPEG mode rather than raw (STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!) I will try again tomorrow night after the late improv show...Moon should be low enough then that it won't be a big deal and the comet should still be far enough east that it won't get lost in Tucson's lights. Anyway, here is my pic from tonight.

IMG_6834
This comet will be around for a few weeks...see it now or wait until after the full Moon in January when the skies will be darker. You might see it naked eye!

4 comments:

kkdither said...

Much easier to spot in jpeg, that is, if the green glow is your intended target. There is a cool quality to the posted photo. I'd be frightened to look up and see that, but it would hold my attention! ;>

lizardmom said...

cool! not sure what the difference would be with the other setting, curious tho :)

OrbsCorbs said...

Fools! I's death's comet which always precedes invasion and assimilation by the Necromongers. Then that world is destroyed, as the Necromongers continue on their voyage to the Underverse. Only Riddick can save us now.

Otherwise, cool pic. I like the green glow.

hale-bopp said...

Orbs, I would hate to tell you how many faint comets are pass all the time that no one except us nerds notice :-)