Following data for those interested…

DEC 18.674 UT Mv -0.5 coma 0.5′ DC6 18cm f5 Newtonian 100x
18.677 UT Mv -0.8 coma ~1′ DC8 10×90 Binocular
19.674 UT Mv-0.0 coma ~1′ DC6 10×50 Binocular

Comet is currently just a few degrees from Epsilon Scorpii (Mv 2.28).

Barber Grove Observatory (BGO) -41.22875 +174.90300 3.0m amsl

Regards:- Graham W. Wolf (WOL01).

Well:- the comet DID survive perihelion, amd sprouted a faint ion tail in the process… the LASCO images posted just a few hours ago by NASA are truely stunning!!
!
The comet’s discoverer:- Terry Lovejoy managed a marginal set of brief images in his C8 on December 17.049 UT making the comet ~ Mv -1.2, with a coma of ~ 0.5 arcminute. Alex Amorim managed to sight the comet (just) in daylight on December 18.34 UT from Brazil. He reckoned the comet was a little fainter than Mv -1.0. Terry Lovejoy responded again on December 18.852 UT, with an observation of Mv -0.8, a coma of ~ 0.5′ and DC of 8.

Yoshida of Japan provides the updated ephemeris for Lovejoy C/2011W3 which I have tabulated below.

The comet is located in Ophiuchus, and about halfway between M7 (“stinger of the Scorpion” and planet Mercury. I just “MAY” have made a faint observation this morning in increasing twilight with my 10 x 90 Binocs and 11cm f5 Newtonian, but need to try again tomorrow morning, to actually confirm this!

DECEMBER 17 RA 17:17.39 DEC -25:10.1 ELONG 4 deg Mv 0.5
24 16:59.06 -41:00.1 21 9.2

Best wishes and clear skies!

Graham W. Wolf:-
Barber Grove Observatory (BGO) -41.22875 +174.90300 3.0m amsl
(Lower Hutt, New Zealand).

No further observations from the Barber Grove Observatory in Lower Hutt, since my last recent post. We’ve had torrential rains this week, with serious flooding in Central New Zealand, and even more predicted for the next 3 to 5 days. The latest ground based sighting I am aware of, for Comet Lovejoy C/2011W3 is as follows from Amorim:- based in Brazil.

Dece 15.52UT Mv -4.0 10×50 Binoc.

This makes the comet just 0.5UT from Perihelion, being slightly fainter than Venus at opposition.

Best Wishes

Graham Wolf

Latest visual observations from the Barber Grove Observatory (BGO) at Lower Hutt, NZ, for those interested:-

Dec 06.615 UT Mv 9.6 0.8 arcmin coma DC 3
Dec 09.618 UT Mv 8.5 0.8 arcmin coma DC 4

An 18cm f5 Newtonian at 200x was used for both observations.

The FRAM team:- SCT and CCD have just posted the latest data from Argentina for Comet Lovejoy C/20011 W3, which I have tabulated below:-

Dec 06.32 UT Mv 10.9 coma 0.8 arcmin
07.33 9.7 0.7
08.33 8.8 1.4
10.34 7.2 1.3
11.35 6.1 1.0

Please be careful with further semi-perihelion observations, given the rediculously small solar elongations for the comet that prevail at present. Serious eye injury (or worse!) awaits the careless. I understand that some remote SOHO images may become available later this week, as the comet moves closer into the solar FOV.

Best wishes
Graham Wolf
(Barber Grove Observatory), Lower Hutt, New Zealand

On Dec 09 UT, the near Full Moon (low in the West) set behind some thick cloud, barely 20min before dawn onset! The following night:- the sky was covered in thick haze, and no observation of the Total Lunar Eclipse was possible. Thick haze (and possible rain forecast for the next 2 days) has stopped visual observations here for now.

Only one more personal observation of C/2011W3 (Lovejoy) since my last post. Weather here in Lower Hutt, NZ, expected to improve for this weekend. Comet earlier this week in my 18cm f5 Newtonian at 200X, had “risen” to Mv 10.5, and is headed this weekend for the Norma border with Scorpius… passing a few degrees from Antares as it approaches perihelion at Dec 16.00.

For December 9th, a preliminary ephemeris places the comet at:-
RA 16:25:36 DEC -42:34:12 M1= 9.8 Solar Elongation 21.1 deg

You may be able to pick up the comet about half an hour or so, before dawn onset. I’ll be trying on the morning of the 11th, as the total lunar eclipse ends just before dawn, the Full Moon sets in the West…. and I get about 20mins of dark sky to “play with”. Will have my 10x50s and 11x90s handy, as scope “back-ups”.

Given Comet Lovejoy’s predicted perihelion distance of ~ 120,000km, there’s no conceivable way I reckon it’ll survive Dec 16.0UT.

Good luck with the observing and heartiest congratulations to Terry in Australia for his 3rd comet discovery (I’ve already seen the other two)!

Best wishes and clear skies from me.

Graham Wolf:- Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Barber Grove Observatory (BGO).
12:08 NZDT

Latest of 3 observations makes C/2011W3 (Lovejoy) at Mv 11.0, 0.8 arcmin coma, DC3 at December 05.618 UT. My first observation of the comet, on December 01.608 UT (having estrapolated the discovery positions by Terry Lovejoy for Nov 27th and 29th), placed the comet near Sigma Lupi, and some 12 linear deg or so from Alpha Centauri. It was found after 6 minutes of careful searching at Mv 11.8 at 200x, with a 0.6 arcmin coma and Dc of 3. It was also visually observed on December 02.588 UT.

All observations were done from the Barber Grove Observatory (BGO) at Lower Hutt, near where the Hutt river flows into the Wellington Harbour (NZ). This morning’s observation (NZDT) was done in increasing semi-overcast skies , that have since developed into quite heavy rain in the last hour or so! The comet’s angular motion at 200x is quite noticeable after only about 5 minutes observation, against the fainter background stars.

Here in Southern latitudes, ( BGO = -41.22875, +174.90300, 3.0m amsl) it appears best to look for the comet only about an hour or so before dawn onset. With narowing Solar Elongation, that will be even trickier to achieve later this week!

Also, don’t forget the total Lunar Eclipse next week!

Regards

Graham W. Wolf
(Lower Hutt, NZ)

We’ve been observing Kreutz group comets since at least 1843, and studies by Brian Marsden point to the Great Comet of 371 B.C. as the parent body of this group. SOHO is discovering some 100 Kreutz comets per year, so even if we assume these past 15 years have been particularly prolific, it’s still easy to come up with “thousands” for the number of fragments out there. If these past years have been typical, then we’re talking tens or hundreds of thousands of fragments.

If the progenitor comet was several dozen kilometers in diameter, let’s say 60 km (the approximate size of Comet Hale-Bopp), it would have weighed some 55 x 10^15 kg. That’s about 7,000 Temple 1 comets! And the Kreutz comets SOHO is seeing are much, much smaller than Temple 1.

—JL Galache
Minor Planet Center

Australian “amateur” astronomer Terry Lovejoy ..

Would that be *Reverend* Lovejoy by any chance?

Joking aside that is one awesome finding for an ‘amateur’ astronomer – superb news! (& by a fellow Aussie too!)

@4. JL Galache : cool & very impressive facts indeed. Thanks – & well done SOHO team an oft overlooked but wonderful mission.

If memory serves, I think the Parkes Dish has discovered well over a thousand pulsars .. & Corot / Kepler (one of those?) has detected around that many exoplanet candidates hasn’t it?

Cool fact #2: SOHO has discovered over 1,500 Kreutz comets since it was launched in 1995.

—JL Galache
Minor Planet Center