Astroblog: Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy 28-12-14

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy 28-12-14

Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy sketched on 28 December using 10 x 50 binoculars on a tripod. The comet is bigger than 47 Tucana but dimmer. Didn't bring my charts so I can't reliably estimate magnitude. Very easy to find in binoculars even with the waxing Moon. No hint of tail with binoculars. With moonlight no hope of seeing it with the unaided eye.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 10:27 pm

Comments:

Hi, I'm sorry if this sounds stupid. Did this comet pass over last night? As I believe I saw a comet trail in last nights sky but I am not 100% definite of what it was. Many thanks in advance

# posted by

Unknown : 12:26 am

This comment has been removed by the author.

# posted by

Unknown : 2:09 am

My family and I spotted a large comet with white tail and red and blue fire ball, at aprox 5:30 PM Pacific Coast time, in the SF Bay Area, with completely unaided eyes. Any idea what it was? I see no postings about it!

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:23 am

G'Day Folks

Sorry about taking so long to get back to you. Off on holidays with limited internet access.

Anyway, what you saw was a fireball, a very bright meteor. They are beautiful and relatively rare. Fireball seeing, being in the upper atmosphere, is very location dependent, you may have been to only people in the world to see your respective meteors.

The comet itself is dim, and its movement can only be discerned over a period of several hours when using your unaided eyes.

# posted by

Ian Musgrave : 8:49 am