C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

Good morning all,

Last night several observers met at the Sugar Loaf Car Park. Like so many of you I was keen to see C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) under the dark sky of Co. Wicklow. This was my third time to observe the Comet. I have seen it through my 10 X 50s; my 150mm f/8 Newtonian reflector (on an Dobsonian base); and last night it was the turn to see it through my newly acquired Dob (250mm f/5).

Before observing it through my DOB, I saw it naked eye just before 23:30 ISM. I felt the comet was a little dimmer, and the tail was a little longer than previous sessions.

From the outset I was keen to sketch the Comet. So I used a 2" 30mm Plossl to sketch 'NEOWISE' from 23:35 ISM - 23:55 ISM. At 42X the nucleus was very bright, and I could see some greenish colour to it. Having a 1.68 TFOV there were a number of stars surrounding the Comet - truly beautiful!

In addition to sketching C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). I also took a look at Jupiter and its four Galilean Moons; M22 - thanks Paul!; a very faint Globular Cluster below Saturn - thanks Aubrey!; the Andromeda Galaxy; and to the cap the night off I viewed the Double-Cluster in Perseus. Through the new scope it sparkled like never before.

Other details from the evening include:
Location: The Great Sugar Loaf Car park, Co Wicklow, Ireland - Bortle 5
Seeing: 6/7pk
Transparency: 5
Instrument used: f/5 250mm Newtonian Reflector
Eyepiece: 2" 30mm plossl (70° AFOV)
Materials used: 2B pencil, blending stump. The image was sketched at the eyepiece, scanned, and uploaded to my PC. I used to Gimp 2.1 to invert, colourize, and resize the image

Thanks to everyone for a super nigh, and the very best of luck to Ben and his wife for the coming week.

As always many thanks for taking the time to read the above, and your comments and feedback are always welcomed.

Clear skies to all,
Darren.

Lovely rendition, great details in the tail.

Very many thanks Paul,

Great to see you last night, and thanks again for helping me find M22... Very nice Globular Cluster. 

Clear skies, 

Darren

Right! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!
Yes. I thought I ought to throw in one of those worst songs we have been chatting about over the last few nights.
I will now give you all my full report from Sunday night 19th July 2020.
We were all present for one real reason alone: C/2020 F3 Neowise.
It was excellent that we all eventually met up at the Sugarloaf car park. I wrote down many noteworthy names - including Michael, Darren, Mike, Ben, Kevin and Paul. And even some folk I know from church life turned up completely unexpectedly earlier on having climbed the Sugarloaf mountain.
But before the comet appeared, I spent some time splitting 4 easy doubles and 1 triple in Corona Borealis. I had not seen any of these before with my William Optics 158 mm F/7 apochromatic refractor. .
The figures are from www.stelledoppie.it

1. Ho 399 is the only true double of the night. Magnitudes: A = 7.7. B = 10.5. Sep = 3.7". PA (position angle) = 117 degrees. I had great joy at seeing B cleanly separated at 112X. It was also a fine view at 140X and 167X. Both stars are white. Super start! Ho does indeed stand for George Washington Hough (1836 - 1909). The double can be found near Iota Crb.

2. H 5 75 is an optical double near Epsilon Crb. Magnitudes: A = 7.9. B = 11.5. Sep = 57.1". PA = 113 degrees. As I had no fuss seeing B cleanly separated from A at 40X I did not see the need to increase the magnification. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white, and they were discovered by William Herschel (1738 - 1822).

3. Lambda Crb was easy too. It is an optical double. Magnitudes: A = 5.5. B = 11.4. Sep = 90.6". PA = 68 degrees. 40X was sufficient to see the 2 stars split quite wide apart. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white

4. STT 304 is an uncertain double. Magnitudes: A = 6.8. B = 10.6. Sep = 10.4". PA = 173 degrees. Very attractively split at 40X and 112X. STT stands for Otto Struve (1897 - 1963). Both stars are white.

5. Lastly we have Upsilon Crb. It is an optical triple star. Magnitudes: A = 5.8. C = 10.4. D = 10.4. Sep's = 87.5" and 123.3". PA's from A = 21 and 50 degrees respectively. All 3 stars split at 40X of course. But I recognised the need to go quite a bit higher. The spectral classes are: A3, A and M8. Therefore A and B are both white. However C is red! I could make its true colour at magnifications 112X, 140X and 167X. What a super sight it is to see a reasonably red star in any of these eyepieces.

6. I have checked out on my Guide 9.1 DVD that there is indeed a globular cluster just 2 degrees south of Saturn. It is definitely M75 alright. We got it! M75 is a small class 1 globular cluster whose magnitude is +8. Its optical diameter is 3 arc minutes. Burnham describes it as bright, pretty large, rich and brighter in the middle. The main reason why we have great difficulty in seeing any stars in this cluster is because they are of magnitude +17! Charles Messier thought it was a "nebula without stars". William Herschel saw it as a miniature version of M3. M75 is most probably the most distant globular in the Messier Catalogue. Its distance is about 95,000 light years away. Its diameter is 125 light years. I am so delighted that M75 is so near Saturn. I might not have observed it otherwise.

7. Thanks to John O'Neill and his Sky High Diary, I believe some of us saw a very bright and early Delta Aquariid meteor on Sunday night. They are due to peak on 31st July. This meteor appeared to come from Aquarius alright.

8. Comet Neowise was very much the main showpiece of Sunday night. I reckon its tail was reaching 4 degrees long as it stretched upwards through Ursa Major. There are differing estimates as to what its true magnitude is over on Cloudy Nights. Ben with us thought it was +1.5. While others think it is lower at +3. However I am not an expert on such matters. I am just thrilled I had finally observed it properly with my scope. It is the 13th comet I have successfully observed. Ben told me last night its nucleus is 5 kms wide. I have since checked out that its distance was about 104 million kilometres from Earth last night. So that means Neowise is still getting that bit closer to us!! It is due to be closest to Earth on Thursday 23rd July.

Clear skies to you all from Aubrey.

Hello Aubrey,

A fine report indeed. Very well done on splitting those four double stars early in the evening - I know you were keen to observe them. 

Many thanks for providing those details on M75 too, and I like Herschel's description of it.

As for the comet. It was great that so many of us were able to share the experience of seeing it from the Sugarloaf. It is amazing to think of how big it is as it soars above us. Hopefully, we will get to see it again soon. 

Clear skies, and yes, that is a dreadful song!

Darren.

I should have also said that Comet Neowise had a very noticeable green hue - particularly in its tail!
So does that make it an Irish comet?? Lol.

And that stunningly white nucleus was most certainly unforgettable!

I now have discovered that the comet will be ascending in our Irish skies over the next while.

Clear skies from Aubrey.