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OVERVIEW CHART OF COMETS (Nomenclature, Observations and Photos) - Possum Observatory
FOR PHOTOS AND OBSERVATIONS OF EACH COMET CLICK ON THAT COMET'S LINK...
| COMET LINK | When Best | Max Mag* | Max Mag Decl | Max Mag Elong | Max Mag Constltn | Observations | Photos |
| C/2007 N3 (Lulin) | 23 Feb 2009 | 5.5 | +01* | 151* | |||
| 29P (Schwassmann/Wachmann) | |||||||
| C/2008A1 (McNaught) | |||||||
| C/2008P1 (Garrard) | |||||||
| C/2007 G1 (LINEAR) | |||||||
| 15P (Findlay) | |||||||
| C/2007 W1 (Boattini) | |||||||
| C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) | Declining | ||||||
| C/2007 K5 (Lovejoy) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1 - confirmation | |
| C/2007 E1 (Garradd) | 1 | ||||||
| C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 1 - confirmation | 1 - confirmation |
| C/2006 P1 (McNaught) | |||||||
| C/2006 M3 (Barnard) | Declining | 1 | |||||
| 73P (Schwassmann/Wachmann) | 14 May 2006 | 6.5? | +23° | 83° | Vulpecula | 1 | |
| C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) | |||||||
| C/2005 T4 (SWAN) | 1 | ||||||
| C/2005 E2 (McNaught) | 21 Feb 2006 | 9 | +07° | 33° | 1 | ||
| C/2005 A1 (LINEAR) | 21 March 2005 | 10 - 11 | -58° | 59° | Phoenix | 1 | 1 |
| C/2004 R2 (ASAS) | |||||||
| C/2004 Q2 (Maccholz) | many | heaps | |||||
| C/2004 H6 (SWAN) | Late May 2004 | 7.3? | -11° | 30° | Eridanus | 1 | a few |
| C/2004 B1 (LINEAR) | 11th May 2006 | 12ish | +07° | 114° | 1 | ||
| C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) | 28 Oct 2004 | 5-ish | -28° | 25° | some | ||
| C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) | 18 May 2004 | 2.0? | -04° | 38° | Eridanus | many | heaps |
| C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) | 7 May 2004 | 3.0? | -17° | 75° | Canis Major | many | heaps |
| 9P (Tempel 1) | 11 June 2005 | 9-10 | -01 | 112 | Virgo | 3 | 2 |
| 41P (Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak) | Declining | 1 | |||||
| P/Shoemaker-Levy (181P) | |||||||
| * approximate |
| Total comets seen | Total Observations (links to a spreadsheet with all my observations) | 2006 Observations |
| 50 (as at July 2006) | 236 | ? |
One area of particular interest to me is comet observations. I do these with the naked eye (contra to the modern and popular CCD camera) using either my 41cm (16") f4.5 reflector, 20cm (8") f4 reflector, or 80mm (3") f5 refractor. Basically I look at the comet (and some are VERY faint) and estimate how bright it is, what size the coma is, how condensed the coma and nucleus are, look for a tail, and write down notes about it. These observations are sent to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CometObs/ and http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/RecentObs.html
Current comets brighter than magnitude 13.5 - as seen from New Zealand (Excel Spreadsheet - has useful comet links too)