[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Following Comet 12/P Pons-Brooks

[Mike McCabe]

Greetings Members and Friends of the SSAStros,
I'm sure you're all curious about the evolution of the latest comet du-jour in our skies, right?  Ok, maybe you're not staying up nights wondering what will happen next with the latest dirty snowball to grace our skies, but I've been following it along now for a bit.
For one thing, it is absolutely brightening. Back at my first look at it in mid-February it was at magnitude 8.1, then it was at magnitude 6.8 during our Granite Links outing, and last night it was shining at magnitude 5.7, so progressively brighter for sure.
But that doesn't mean that it's necessarily improving as linearly from a visual perspective. There's a couple of things going on here that are serving to diminish it in our skies. The first is that it's located nearly due west and in the constellation Pisces right now, which means that every day the light of evening twilight encroaches closer and closer to it, and by the time of astronomical dark the comet is significantly less than 20° above the horizon. Other factors affecting our view include our local light pollution and the intrusion of the Moon during its waxing phases.
I enjoyed a particularly rewarding view of the comet a few nights ago at the Nip while using my 11x56 binoculars to look at it, so when it was clear yesterday I was pretty pumped to go see it again. I even decided to take a picture of the scene using a 'real' camera instead of the pocket miracle that we've all got with us at all times these days. The experience wasn't as rewarding as I was hoping for.
Of course there was that relentless gale coming out of the W/NW, so I was dressed like I was preparing to cross the Arctic Circle and even then it was take a couple of frames, get back in the truck to examine them, take a couple of more, and so on. Then there was the Moon, which as everyone knows I often enjoy, but last night I was wishing I could turn it off. Finally, the low altitude of the target meant that every image was soaking up all that light pollution. Going deep was not an option.

Here's the best image that I got from my efforts. There's a planet, a comet, and at least one galaxy in it, but they're not easy to discern. Image specs; Nikon D5000, 35mm prime lens @ F4, ISO 640, 6sec.

Mercury is having a good apparition this spring, so it's a great time to get out and see that if you're interested. The comet was conveniently located next to a couple of very good comparison stars, so the current magnitude of 5.75 listed in the Stellarium mobile app seems pretty close by looking at that trio, and if that isn't the most compromised rendering of M31 that you've ever seen then I don't know what is. I know exactly where M33 is in that frame, and there isn't even a hint of it collecting on the pixels.
In addition to the camera I used a pair of 8x42 binoculars to view the comet. It was one of those if-you-didn't-know-right-where-it was experiences, you wouldn't have known you were looking at it. Hopefully when the Moon passes into the waning phases things will get better once again.
Sincerely,
Mike M.

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