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

From: MexicoDoug <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 25 18:37:47 2006
Message-ID: <008401c6f81e$a5e7ff70$facc92ac_at_thedawning>

Hello Listees,

Rob's green Comet has exploded. This is fascinating and this is big news for Comet people. OK, 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 5 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 24.06 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 24.06 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 more impressive in the binoculars, though. This 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
>
>
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