Of Comets, Planets, and Nebulae – Jupiter, M42 and Lovejoy

A new image of Comet Lovejoy came through my queue yesterday afternoon from the BRT so I decided it was a great time (since it was clear) to give my scope another chance.

C2014-Q2-Lovejoy-CL-011015-2113e

I managed to finally get my new-to-me Meade LX-80 mount with 6" Meade Refractor (AR-6) to actually align properly. This resulted in a great observing session including Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy, The Orion Nebula (M42) and the planet Jupiter. In addition to catching these great objects, I hooked up my Nikon D80 DSLR camera to it for some shots.

I've included a couple shots below and the full gallery link at the end of the post.

DSC_7862_lzn DSC_7864_lzn DSC_7889 DSC_7900

It was definitely a chilly night and the observing session ended when the scope was slewing to the Pinwheel Galaxy (so I could try a few shots there) and the power cord unplugged signaling a great time to call it a night.

In addition to the 3 main objects I managed to capture, the M42 shots include the surprise of several objects passing through the field of view. I suspect one of them is Japanese satellite AJISAI (EGS) but the others I wasn't able to identify before this post.

Catch the full gallery here: http://www.collegeastronomy.com/gallery/comet-q2-lovejoy-m42-jupiter/

Comet C2014 Q2 Lovejoy Update

Comet Q2 is shaping up to be a nice little gem in the night sky. Unfortunately, my local skies have been cloudy and rainy since my initial post so I have not been able to snap a few local images. However, I managed to get another with the BRT on January 2nd which turned out quite nice. I've included it with this update below. While it's not very clear without over exposure, there is a thin tail coming off the comet that, in this image, protrudes toward the upper right corner of the frame.

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For general viewing tips, please see my other article here: Holiday Comet 2014

Below you'll find a sky chart for where you can find the comet over the next several days. Be sure to check it out if you can!

CometQ2-Lovejoy-Jan5toJan13-Path