Category: Planetary

Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) – June 15, 2010
By Juanchin

Object : Comet C/2009 R1 McNaught
Date : June 15, 2010
Time : 03:00 LST / 10:00 UT
Location : Wickenburg Arizona USA
Instrument : Orion 25 x 100 FOV 2.5 Deg.
Magnitude : ~ 6.5
Weather : Dark and clear sky, slightly gusty winds, cool upper 70’s with a chance of Sagittarids! : )

Comments :
A major prediction for this comet was that perhaps being a first timer to swing around our Sun, it might have a dramatic outburst display like that of Comet Holmes.
Last week of June the 9th, I sketched McNaught while it passed by M34, but the Moon was the factor that was robbing me of some extra details. Details that tonight
were more noticeable. The ionic tail is longer, I’d say at least over 1.5 Degrees. A fine thin tail stretching subtlely into a North-Northwest direction. Also, what I believed was
the dust tail, a spur emanating from the coma and shooting towards the West was visible. It kind of pointed towards the bright yellow star of Delta Persei.
The coma itself showed its greenish tint along with a very bright white core. I’m not very precise on determining the size of the coma but I’d say it was in the vicinity of 10 arcminutes.(Someone can help me here, will appreciate) ; ) I noticed the comet had shifted during the course of about 1 hour. A star North of the comet and grazing the tail was now on the the Southwest side and embedded close to the dust tail. By a wild guess again, this comet had traveled almost its own coma diameter in that 1 hour time lapse.

This will be my last chase for comet McNaught, twilight starts creeping very fast soon after 11:00 UT. It hinders any chance to see the comet rise higher and the dawn light starts washing everything away. As the days progress the comet will be lower and lower into the horizon and finally out of sight. I enjoyed every bit of observation and I hope there are more of you out there who did the same and sketched it.

Wishing all clear and dark skies,

Juanchin

P.S. I only saw about 3 Sagittarids that night, very bright with short trains !!!

C/2009 R1 (McNaught)
By Michael Rosolina

Hi,

This comet, a new visitor from the far outer reaches of our solar system, is currently visible to the northeast in the early morning skies. It has been brightening rapidly as it approaches the Sun, but this proximity to the Sun means that an observer has only a short time to see the comet before it disappears in the skyglow of morning twilight.

Another result of solar proximity is the comet’s tail. R1 McNaught has a long gas tail (at least 1° in length) and a short, stubby dust tail which have been visible in images. In this sketched observation, I was able to visually detect part of the gas tail, which is pushed straight away from the Sun by the pressure of the solar wind.

The sketch was done in the field just at the onset of twilight with a 2B pencil and stump on white sketch paper and inverted digitally. Good luck with your own comet chasing!

Michael Rosolina

C/2009 R1 (McNaught)
Comet
Friars Hill, WV USA
0820-0830 UT 11 June 2010

C/2009 R1 (McNaught) and Messier 34
By Juanchin

Object: C/2009 R1 McNaught
Date: June 09 2010
Time: 02:15 – 03:00 Local / 0715 – 1000 UT
Location: Wickenburg Arizona USA, at the foothills of Vulture Peak trailheads.
Equipment: Binoculars 12 x 60 Oberwerk and 25 x 100 Orion Giant view
Magnitude: ~7.5
Weather: Clear sky, calm winds, noctilucent clouds to the East but not in the way. high 70’s in this part of town!

Comments:
Greetings everyone! I sound like a stranger to this site but I haven’t had a chance to devote some time to one of my favorite doings. We’ll here you have it, I had read weeks prior that C/2009 R1 McNaught was going to become a visible comet to the unaided eye. Since that’s all it takes to get me excited, I decided to give it a try and start chasing this bad boy. I didn’t want to loose the opportunity like I did with the McNaught of 2007. (remember that one?)

Starting and staring visually, I couldn’t detect the comet when it drifted into view above the mountainous horizon.At about 15 to 20 degrees from the horizon, using the 12 x 60’s I readily spotted and would say that it sported a magnitude of 7.5 or so. Sort of hard to see at that brightness and altitude without optical aid. I was able to frame the comet with the star cluster M34 in the 5 degree FOV given by the binoculars. A fuzzy ball with no trace of a tail but that would change. I mounted the 25 x 100’s and like my kids would say nowadays- O.M.G !!! (Oh My God!)

I still had that wide vista that included both the comet and the star cluster, though a little tight in the view. Something that I have a hard time to detect is the aqua bluish glow given off by comets but here it was, pale but noticeable. With a little averted vision and the trick of swaying the parallelogram mount slightly, the ionic tail was unequivocally present. I was able to perceive it as being maybe about 1 degree long and stretching outward to a Northeasterly direction.

I decided to include a set of aligned stars outside the FOV to show how far I was able to detect the tail, it probably stretched longer. The Moon!, Oh that slice of cheese can sure ruin a good dark nite. I had to wrap everything up after the waning crescent ruined the view. The following days should prove to get better for observing but this was my only chance for me. Hopefully I will see future sketches posted here on ASOD to see what you all have to show us from this comet.

Juanchin