iTelescope ALERT! comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto at its brightest this week

Comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto as seen at 1:41 Local time on 11 Feb for Mayhill, NewMexico, when it is at transit. The Comet is near between 53 Leo and Regulus. the larger rectangle is the field of view of T14/20 medium rectangle is T5/T11 (Mayhill)Click to embiggen.	Comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto as seen at 3:00 Local time on 11 Feb for SSO, Siding Spring, when it is at transit (astronomical twilight starts at 5:09). The Comet is near 53 Leo . The large square is the field of View of T12 (SSO) the medium T30 (SSO) and the small that of T17 (SSO). Click to embiggen.

Comet C/2018 Y1 ( Iwamoto ) will be at its brightest over the next few days, notionally peaking on the 12th. Australian observers are reporting that the comet is around magnitude 6.5, easily visible in binoculars, and long exposure astro-photographs are revealing a nice little tail. The comet is currently in Leo.

Comet C/2018 Y1 isin Leo and is visible from both Northern and Southern scopes from with transit around 1:30 am-midnight am (Northern scopes) and 3:00-2:30 am (Southern scopes). Currently The Southern scopes have the best view but after a week the Northern scopes have better views, however the moon will begin to interfere. Currently the Moon sets around midnight so imaging at transit will give the best shots.

Comet C/2018 Y1 is quite bright and moving fats, and will need short exposures with stacking on scopes with tracking for the best results.

iTelescope users have been getting nice shots of the comet.

The MPC one line ephemeris is:

    CK18Y010  2019 02 07.0247  1.286916  0.989575  358.0526  147.4829  160.4008  20190427  11.5  4.0      C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto)

Ephemeris of comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto from SSO
Date                Rise         Ast Twi E   Altitude    Transit      Set           Ast Twi B 
10 Feb 2019 20:59:53 21:25:40 +33° 00' 07" 03:00:46 08:41:42 05:09:28 
11 Feb 2019 20:42:49 21:24:33 +34° 45' 20" 02:35:53 08:07:30 05:10:37 
12 Feb 2019 20:24:27 21:23:24 +35° 53' 27" 02:09:07 07:30:59 05:11:46 
13 Feb 2019 20:04:55 21:22:14 +36° 13' 23" 01:40:46 06:52:45 05:12:54 
14 Feb 2019 19:44:23 21:21:04 +35° 40' 13" 01:11:17 06:13:37 05:14:02 
15 Feb 2019 19:23:10 21:19:53 +34° 17' 23" 00:41:18 05:34:35 05:15:09 
16 Feb 2019 19:01:38 21:18:40 +32° 15' 22" 23:42:36 04:56:43 05:16:15 
17 Feb 2019 18:40:10 21:17:27 +29° 47' 36" 23:15:00 04:20:54 05:17:21 
18 Feb 2019 18:19:10 21:16:14 +27° 06' 44" 22:49:09 03:47:44 05:18:26 
19 Feb 2019 17:58:56 21:14:59 +24° 22' 28" 22:25:16 03:17:34 05:19:30 

Ephemeris of comet C/2018 Y1 Iwamoto from  Mayhill
Date                Rise         Ast Twi E   Altitude    Transit      Set           Ast Twi B 
10 Feb 2019 18:51:22 19:06:17 +55° 24' 59" 01:41:43 08:01:37 05:26:45 
11 Feb 2019 18:13:43 19:07:05 +62° 27' 12" 01:15:30 07:45:00 05:25:58 
12 Feb 2019 17:34:26 19:07:53 +69° 28' 43" 00:47:35 07:27:10 05:25:10 
13 Feb 2019 16:54:25 19:08:40 +75° 45' 56" 00:18:24 07:08:15 05:24:20 
14 Feb 2019 16:14:43 19:09:28 +79° 30' 29" 23:18:26 06:48:24 05:23:28 
15 Feb 2019 15:36:24 19:10:16 +78° 20' 11" 22:49:11 06:27:56 05:22:36 
16 Feb 2019 15:00:20 19:11:03 +73° 48' 45" 22:21:10 06:07:09 05:21:42 
17 Feb 2019 14:27:06 19:11:50 +68° 27' 04" 21:54:49 05:46:26 05:20:47 
18 Feb 2019 13:57:02 19:12:37 +63° 10' 45" 21:30:22 05:26:07 05:19:50 
19 Feb 2019 13:30:07 19:13:24 +58° 16' 09" 21:07:54 05:06:30 05:18:52

Example plan for following the comet, check filter availability.

; ; Single target image example, adjust filter as necessary for chosen scope (scopes 12,14 and 20 can’t track, the comet is moving so fast that untacted 60s exposures will trail).
;
#trackon
#count 15
#interval 60
#binning 2
#filter Red
CK18Y010 2019 02 07.0247 1.286916 0.989575 358.0526 147.4829 160.4008 20190427 11.5 4.0 C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto)
#shutdown