Hello Asodians!
After the clouds went away Comet C2014Q2 (Lovejoy) appeared glowing in the
sky! The nucleous was very bright, nearly stellar but the tail was not
visible. Not yet.
I observed from my balcony on the 7th floor…
Immediately – after placing my chair there – I went to work but had to wait
for an annoying Cirrus blanket that covered the view. It finally cleared
but before I even looked through the binos, I tried to spot it with my eyes
alone but I just couldn’t convince myself that it was visible. However, I
suspect that with excellent sky conditions the first naked eye observations
will be reported very, very soon!
I made this sketch with white pastel and blending stump on black
paper.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) – January 11, 2015Michel’s fellow observers on the night of January 11, 2015
Object Name (C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy)
Object Type (Comet in Eridan)
Location (Verdon river in France)
Date (Jan. 11th 2015)
Media (watercolor on white paper, inverted after scan via paint.net)
During the “Charlie Hebdo” event we had to keep the pencil in hand, to prove that life goes on and is beautiful and that cretinism can’t win, ever. Today, poverty of spirit associated with force no longer have a voice in civilized countries !
The Lovejoy expedition.
Four of my good friends astronomers propose to come and enjoy the dark sky of the region. Appointment is made on 8 January in the early evening. The day before I found a good ground for observing this beautiful comet without too many trees in the view. Near the small village of Saint-Laurent, a platform overlooking the north side of the Lake of Artignosc on the Verdon river. First I will make some sketches and (yes I know… sorry guys) photographs of the landscape and material that will serve my watercolor the day after.
The photo of the sky taken on Jan. the 7th (Pentax K50 3.5 – 3sec 25600 ISO -18mm) shows the comet as a brillant green star equivalent magnitude to Pi ORI +/- 4.0. But I’m not here to make photo ! it just allow me to position the stars on the sky background on my future painting.
The evening of Jan. 8th everyone is there, my friends Vincent, Antoine, Yvan and Jean-Bernard, made the trip from Brignoles, La Garde, Forcalqueiret and Salon. It’s cold, the wind and the news from Paris make us shiver.
The comet is visible to the unaided eye, even in direct vision. During the previous night, a tail departure was barely noticeable in my Dobson 12ˮ f 5. Today we are three of us observing a double tail, a very short first part is attached to the hair while another, a sort of fine filament spreading further.
It was extremely difficult to see that tail, face this huge ball of light that is the coma of Comet Lovejoy.
Through a set of 2ˮ filters provided by Vincent (CLS, OIII, UHC) we got to see something other than the coma. This is strangely due to the CLS filter that we have been able to detect some clarity in front of the dark sky. We had to get the coma out of the eyepiece to discern the low-contrast gradient between the black sky and the thin clouds of the tail. We are here at the border of the possibilities for the vision.
Dobson used was a 12ˮ f/d 5 and 2ˮ eyepieces Meade 24mm to Omegon 38mm, UWA. We deployed 80mm and 150mm refractors as well as quality binoculars: Echo and Swarovski.
The watercolor shows our group gathered for this “Lovejoy expedition” after two hours of dense observation.
So the final watercolor shows the views of the sky the day before, a view of the Dobson and -with a flash- portraits taken by the Vincent’s camera.
Observing is also meeting us for the same vibration, the same enthusiasm, and that night it was … it was … there was … something strong in the air!
Hi Asod,
Finally I was able to observe the comet that is in our sky. Lovejoy Comet appears like a planetary nebula with a central star (nucleus). I found it very bright, but I saw no tail.
I used my dobsonian telescope 10″ f/5 and an eyepiece of 14mm 82°.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy a montage of several days sketching from December 20, 2014 to January 7, 2015
Aloha!
Like many astronomy enthusiasts I have been following the comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy. I present to you a montage of sketches beginning with binocular views and progressing to higher magnification as the comet moved through the sky.
The first sketch in binoculars on 12/20/14 showed the bright yellow/ orange star Kappa Columba in the same field of view as the comet. On 12/28/14 the close proximity to M79 made for a special observation in my 4” refractor. In the last sketched observation on 1/7/15 in the 12.5” reflector I was taken aback by the sheer size of the comet, also at its brightest at this time with light and dark streaking visible in the tail. Beautiful to behold at any magnification.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy Montage
12/20/14 to 1/7/15, all times listed are Hawaii Standard Time.
I got the comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) from Norway, Trondheim.
This one was a fine object, big coma but no seen structures near nucleus
and no tail. Info on my sketch!
I used pencil and inkpen on white paper (inverted).
Hope you enjoy my sketch and observation!
I wish you all happy new year and clear skies!!
Media: pencil, white paper, color invert and enhance with Gimp.
Zeiss binoculars 15×60 BGAT
SeeIng: 3/5 (good). Intense moonlight.
This is my drawing of Lovejoy comet. I couldn´t see the tail of the comet because a full moon was shining.
It was a very pleasant view the contrast between yellowish colour in the comet, the orange stars HR 1451 and HR 1452 and the white-greenish light from the HIP 21258.
Este es mi dibujo del cometa Lovejoy. No he podido observar la cola del cometa, la observación se hizo con una intensa luz lunar. Lo más placentero de la observación ha sido el contraste entre el color amarillento del cometa y la luz anaranjada de las estrellas HR 1451 y HR 1452 frente al color blanco-verdoso de la estrella más pequeña HIP21258.
Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) and the globular star cluster M79 in the constellation Lepus
M79 and Comet Lovejoy in Lepus
I have been monitoring comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) for the past several nights and on this occasion they both shared the same field of view at130 power. I was using my daughter’s 10 inch Orion Dobsonian telescope and was able to capture this sketch under clear skies and good seeing conditions. The observation site was in eastern Mesa, Arizona with a good view to the south. The comet can be seen much brighter and larger in angular size than than 8.5 magnitude globular cluster M 79. This was a pleasing view at the eyepiece with the comet showing a hint of green color. I switched to 48 power and a wider field of view for the sketch.
Sketching:
White and Black Conte’ pastel pencils on black sketching paper
blending stump and Pink Pearl eraser also used
R.A. 05hr 24′ ; Dec. -24 degrees 33min.
Comet distance less than 100million km.
M79 distance 42,100 light years 150 million stars
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy in conjunction with M79, a globular star cluster in the constellation Lepus -December 29, 2014
Object Name C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy and M79
Object Type Comet and Globular cluster
Location Granadero Baigorria, Santa Fe, Argentina
Date 29/12/14
Media I use pencil, paper, and Gimp to invert colour
Conjunción del cometa Lovejoy con el cúmulo globular M79, en la constelación de la liebre.
El equipo con el cual se realizo la observación es un telescopio reflector sw 150/750 con un ocular de 25.
Podemos notar un bonito “triángulo ” entre el Cometa, m79 y la estrella HIP 25045 A. Se pudo observar un color con tintes verdosos hacia el centro del cometa. No se pudo observar coma
Google translate:
Comet Lovejoy conjunction with the globular cluster M79 in the constellation of the hare.
The equipment with which the observation was performed is a reflecting telescope with an eyepiece 150/750 sw 25.
We can notice a nice “triangle” between the Comet, m79 and the star HIP 25045 A. It was observed color with greenish tints to the center of the comet. Could be observed comma
The conjunction of the crescent Moon and Planet Mars – December 24, 2014
Aloha,
Every Christmas Eve, my family treks to the top of Haleakala to feel the chill and look for Santa’s Sleigh. This year we went to the 10,000 el to find it a cold 36*, wet, and blowing rain. After a few minutes we jumped back into the car a bit disappointed, to descend the mountain. Right before the park exit the sky had mostly cleared and the winds calmed. There we hiked under the “smiling” Hawaiian crescent. Chilled cheeks and fingers, it was perhaps one of the nicest Christmas Eves ever. This sketch was drawn from my memory of the evening.
In the winter months the path of the Moon is more parallel with the horizon giving the lunar crescent in Hawaii a bowl or smile like appearance when lit from the already set sun. Ancient Hawaiian’s called this the “wet moon” because it looks like a bowl that could be filled up with rain. As the winter moves into Spring & Summer the crescent shifts to “pour” water onto the land, empties and becomes a “dry moon” once more. Wet moons occur routinely in the tropics where the sun and moon rise and set nearly vertically.
3.5 day old Crescent Moon & Mars
12/24/14 1930 HST
Haleakala National Park, Hosmers Grove
Black Canson paper with colored Conte’ Crayon and watercolor pencils
Cindy (Thia) Krach
Webmaster’s note: Wishing all astrosketchers a Very Happy New Year and looking forward to another year hosting all your wonderful observational sketches!
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy, a winter solstice view – December 21, 2014
Hello friends,
I send you a report observation of Comet C / 2014 Q2 Lovejoy yesterday night, December 21, 2014
Just started the winter solstice and wanted to celebrate it!
Waiting for the chance to see the comet decide to go to the rooftop, the map says it’s 15 degrees high. I hope that the fog has not risen much …
The humidity is very high but its clear and I can see lot of stars south of CMa … looks like I’ll be lucky.
I pointed to the area between south CMa and Columba with binoculars 12×80 (4.2º), no need to look further: there it is. His precious coma highlighting against the background of stars…
The field of binoculars is beautiful, the comet is framed in a triangle of stars and I can see a thin tail with indirect vision that goes north. It’s longer than I expected to see, I make a mark on the picture to know the length of the tail I see (arrow).
I make a drawing with the position of the comet and the reference stars and the size of the coma and tail to the correct scale I see.
Graphite (H, HB) and difumino on white paper, scanned and inverted.
