OVERFLOW

Comet C2013 R1 (Lovejoy)

Early morning observations. A final, fleeting glimpse of comet Lovejoy before astronomical twilight takes over all night in high northern latitudes from April 25th. A night of good transparency from  around 22h UT (21st) but with initial poor seeing – improving towards midnight and in to the early hours of the 22nd.

Comet C2013 R1 (Lovejoy) imaged 2014 April 22 at 01h 01m UT. A 53.1 sec, exposure. 150mm aperture f/5 achromat. D300 SLR, ISO 2000. (Cropped image: left click to enlarge.) 

The brightest star in the field is (36.5' approx.) QQ Serpentis 7.51 (variable minimum magnitude: 7.64) spectral class: M2III. Stars to magnitude 15.8 are discernable which, for an altitude of just 9°, is quite an achievement.

The comet’s location (shown between the two white lines) is verified from four images taken at about the same time with similar exposures of around 50 sec. Estimated integrated visual magnitude from high resolution images: 15.3. The star just visible in this low resolution image, above and a little to the left of the comet, is GSC 5683-1172, visual mag.14.88.

Comet’s data at time of observation:

Constellation: Serpens

Right Ascension: 18h 3m 59s

Declination: -12° 14' 13"

Altitude: 8° 59'

Azimuth: 132° 52'

Hour angle: 20h 49m

Rise: 23h 29.5m

Transit: 4h 11.7m

Set: 8h 49.7m 

Elongation: 120.2°

Distance: 1.4691 AU (219.8 million km)

Radius vector: 2.1572 AU (322.7 million km)

Horizontal parallax: 5.99"

A night of good transparency from  around 22h UT (21^st) but with initial poor seeing – improving towards midnight and into the early hours of the 22^nd.

Observations also made of M82 (supernova fading somewhat), Mars (showing the two polar caps well) and Saturn.

MJ & JCV

22/04/14