New Comet Discovered

Hi all,

New comet discovered by Japanese astronomers. Details below

Exciting news!, a brand new bright comet has just been discovered visually by two amateur astronomers from Japan. Kaoru Ikeya (of Ikeya-Zhang fame) and Shigeki Murakami (who proved his thoughts correct) both independently discovered the comet in early November however it's true identity was only revealed recently after much needed follow up observation. It appeared on the NEOCP as a mag +10 object, the NEOCP never reveal any more information than they need to in order to prevent bias among observers so very little data is supplied other than the observatory code, magnitude, dates, and RA and DEC of the object who's nature is never mentioned. If the magnitude is faint then it's a fair bet the object is an asteroid however if the magnitude is brighter than say 12 then chances are it's a new comet.

On November 4th it was finally announced as a new comet and currently visible from the northern hemisphere in the eastern sky before dawn within the constellation of Virgo very close to the naked eye star Porimma (Gamma Virginis), the comet is moving slowly SE each night near the ecliptic and is fairly close to the Sun with an elongation of 32 degrees which gradually decreases with time. Designated C/2010 V1 Ikeya-Murakami, the comet is now being reported as visible in 10x50mm binoculars with an estimated magnitude of +7.5, moderately condensed at D.C: 5 with a coma between 2' and 5' in diameter. At the moment no tail is visible however CCD imagery shows an elongated coma. If you want to see this new comet then now is the time to look because V1 has already passed perihelion (based on it's preliminary orbit) and is currently at it's brightest. There is some speculation that the comet has experienced an outburst and that it may be short period in nature however more astrometric work is needed to confirm this.

There are no finder charts available at the moment however the RA and DEC from November to January is available on this BBA Ephemeris...

www.nightskyhunter.com/Sky%20Events%20Now.html

Neill

Nice to see amateurs beating NEAR and LINEAR once again!

Ditto, It's another score for us visual observers

currently visible from the northern hemisphere in the eastern sky before dawn within the constellation of Virgo very close to the naked eye star Porimma (Gamma Virginis)

well, that puts it near the planet Saturn too I'll try to have a look in the morning

Keith..

Well guys, I made an attempt to observe and photograph this new comet at 5.30 to 6am this morning under good clear skies, however I could not detect it with even my 20x90mm binoculars.

I also got a sot of it nearby with Saturn, I haver to say the comet is very disappointing, showing itself as a very small colourless object, no tail, if fact it looks like a very distant globular cluster.

Keith..

well, if this thing is currently nearish the sun from our point of view then maybe it's on the opposite side of the solar system and far away, maybe we'll get better views of it in the coming months?
anyone know its orbit ?