Comet Hunting - my experiences

                                         Comet Hunting - my experiences                                           Dr V Anand

Comet McNaught

"When beggars die there are no comets seen,

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes"

                                     - Calpurnia in Julius Cesar.

These days any information can be accessed from the web pages with a mere finger touch from a small smartphone sitting in your home. No need to go to a library or buy a book. We are spared much trouble. Therefore, leaving aside the technicalities of what a comet is, let me try to narrate my experiences on the observations of a few comets, since I began my hobby with a telescope in 1986.

My father bought for me a 5" Newtonian reflector telescope from Devadas Telescoptics, in Guindy, Chennai city, during the apparition of comet "Halley" way back in 1986.

Comet Halley 8th March 1986

Halley was a disappointment though as it had put on a poor show in our skies than was predicted and I too was a beginner then. Nevertheless, it kindled a lot of interest in observational astronomy which propelled me to go hunting for comets, though I haven't had the chance to discover a new one yet, restricted mainly by the preoccupation of school and college day studies, lack of money, telescopes, limitations due to city light and atmospheric pollution, and many other requirements.

It so happened in 1989 there was comet "Brorsen Metcalf" in the morning skies. In the initial enthusiasm of a young college boy situated in Sowcarpet, Chennai city, I cycled all the way in the very early morning to look for this comet in the pre dawn skies to Besant Nagar beach . I had to go there and not Marina beach because my friend had a pair of binoculars and he lived in Besant Nagar at  Kalakshetra colony.  It was partly cloudy and we thought we had seen the hint of a comet, as a faint smudge and a filament suggestive of a tail, though we were quite unsure if it was not a faint wisp of cloud itself. Nevertheless, it was a great feel, for young hearts.

Later, I found in the 'Astronomy Magazine,' Comet Brorsen Metcalf designated, 1989 23P, revealed itself brilliantly to exposure photography and had six tails, fanning outwards. Its last perihelion was on September 11, 1989.

Comet Brorsen Metcalf

At the time of Charles Messier, comets were discovered in the pre dawn and dusk skies above the sun rise and sun set points on either side of it to a few degrees and to  altitude of 10 or twenty degrees. Nowadays, the power of telescopes and detection techniques have greatly increased to enable us to spot comets much farther away from the sun, even at the distance of the Jovian orbit, in any direction, (they have highly inclined orbits) as it comes to the inner solar system, in its orbit around the sun. 

The next comet I saw, was comet "Okasaki-Levy-Rudenko" designated 1989 r, a real telescopic hunt. Comets are named after its discoverers. A maximum of the first three independent discoverer names are considered.

Comet Okasaki-Levy-Rudenko

<http://www.phys.ttu.edu/~ozprof/olr.htm>

Like the discoverers, I too belonged to  a group of trio amateur observers who spotted the elusive comet at 3 am, right in the middle of our city, from the roof top of the house where there was a great amateur deep sky observer, the late Swami Rakal Chandra Maharaj. He stayed there in his friend's house, near the Gaudia Mutt in Royapetah, Chennai. We used an eight inch Newtonian reflector telescope of focal ratio 8.9, made by Devadas Telescoptics, Guindy, Chennai. The Swami was a soft spoken sadhu who was a multi-talented personality, a mini Leonardo da Vinci. He had a great passion for astronomy, and was an extensive traveler. In those times, we even posted a write up in the "Sky-Scraper," the in-house magazine of Tamilnadu Astronomy Association (Tanastro), c/o BM Birla Planetarium, Chennai. 

It was a real challenge in the pre digital astrophotography days. Nowadays, our sophisticated go-to telescopes and CCD and DSLR cameras, make it so easy an object to see and photograph, once the telescope is polar aligned. Scientifically enriching, the gap between the observational, professional and amateur astronomers are dwindling fast in the internet connected present world. 

Then came comet "Austin", designated 1989 1C. It was discovered by a New Zealander. As it reached perihelion and circled around the sun, it was initially in the western sky and after it passed behind the sun it could not be seen for a while, only to have reappeared in the early morning sky as it moved away from the sun. Now, it climbed up in altitude every day, passing close to Andromeda galaxy, up and up till it reached to almost eighty degrees above the north eastern horizon. I remember seeing through the eight inch refractor finder telescope as the main ninety inch telescope was mounted with a spectroscope for taking a spectrum of the comet at the famous Vainu Bappu Observatory, at Kavalur. I had been staying there for a few days, with special permission from the then director Dr KK  Ghosh. It was spring time and summer advancing but it was cold and I was shivering though to my utter bewilderment the observational assistant dealing with the imaging, was so well adapted and was sitting with his shirts off smiling at me. He gave me an additional cup of tea in the early morning to charge my spirit.

Comet Austin 1989 1C

<https://www.eso.org/public/italy/news/eso9004/>

I will pin my article on comet Austin (later), which appeared in the Indian Express, with an introduction from the late Mr Harry Miller, who was a great story teller, well known throughout India to science journalists, and who lived in the Boat Club Road, in Adyar region of our Chennai city. I had a decade long intellectually stimulating relationship with him with so many letters from him which I still have, pending publication. Indeed, it thrills me to realize now that the great science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke knew me, as an astronomy enthusiast, through Harry!

There were many other comets I missed seeing due to college studies. The next major sensation was the comet that collided with planet Jupiter in 1994. It was comet "Shoemaker-Levy" designated, D 1992 F2.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy

(- broke apart into 21 fragments in July 1992 and collided with Jupiter in July 1994)

The explosion scars on Jupiter were larger in surface area than the earth, and it became the object of observation, as the colliding fragments, in a weeks time, fell on Jupiter one by one, producing scars in different regions, as the planet rotated.

I remember the front half a page article in the Indian Express, mentioned the first fragment of the great comet crash as follows: "Fifty million hydrogen bombs explode on planet Jupiter."

Shocking, human race had its first direct evidence of theoretical considerations before, that a comet could indeed crash on a planet! It was a world news and the talk lasted a few months only to have been erased  from human memory as is the case with every other catastrophe. Man forgets in his preoccupied state of humdrum routine of life the real dangers posed to him and his race by nature. So what...little could we do, God save us all, is the cry of the major lot of people, and in a way, yes true! God be with us. The human race and the nuclear weapons are no match before nature. We live in a violent universe.  Only 'God' or in scientific terms, the 'Theory of Everything' could save us!

In 1997, came a spectacular comet which was visible in the west after sunset, comet Hale-Bopp, designated C 1995 O1. 

Comet Hale-Bopp

It was a naked eye comet with a fan shaped tail. I observed it almost everyday for a fortnight. I remember showing it to neighbors and kids, who never saw the sky or rather who hardly had any idea of what the sky contains! Astronomers use celestial events and cometary apparitions for catching the attention of the common man.

Comet Hale-Bopp

shortly after passing perihelion in April 1997.

(Hale had spent many hundreds of hours searching for comets without success, and finally chanced upon Hale–Bopp just after midnight. Bopp did not own a telescope. He was out with friends near Stanfield, Arizona observing star clusters and galaxies when he chanced across the comet while at the eyepiece of his friend's telescope.)

Comet Hyakutake designated C 1996 B2, was the most sensational comet I had ever seen. When the media and amateurs were planning to observe comet Hale Bopp, all of a sudden there came this comet. 

                                       

Comet Hyakutake 

(discovered on 31 January 1996, that passed very close to Earth in March of that year. It was dubbed The Great Comet of 1996; its passage near the Earth was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years.)

I was having a house shift to a top floor apartment and the very first day by 2 am, as I was lying on the floor talking to my mother, I was startled to see a fuzzy object in the sky with unaided eye, which I knew could only be the comet, which I previously saw through my 5" f/9, reflector telescope. 

In the telescope to my utter disbelief with a 20x magnification it appeared larger than the field of view. Initially, I couldn't recognize, and as I moved the field a bit, only then I could make out the fact that I was seeing the comet, kind of tail first in the distant center of which seemed to be its nucleus, with its tail fanning out of the telescope field! Now, when I searched the web pages, I found the Hubble picture of the comet, which to my surprise seem to suggest the shape that I perceived!

Comet Hyakutake

captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on 

4 April 1996, with an infrared filter

C 1996 B2

Incredible as it may seem, the stunning fact was that, this was the only comet which surprised me by showing its orbital movement! As I was studying for my university examinations, sitting outside with my room mate, and watching this comet and explaining to him, from 11 pm to 3 am, I noticed a remarkable shift of the comet in the starry background. I remembered that it was around its perihelion time! I had observed the orbital motion of a comet indeed! Oh! What a feeling it left on the mind!

Comet McNaught designated C 2006 P1, was again a bright comet I saw through a pair of binoculars, in 2006 from the Yelagiri Hills, in the west immediately after sunset. It seemed to me then, like a spread out groom, like the picture here in cloud cover. It immediately disappeared before many other of my companions could see it. My great friend respectable Mr Raja Sattanathan, was much appreciative of my quick observation and he went on to present me his metal tripod (though he expressed doubts) which I still cherish to use. My salutations to him for his encouragement and good company. If any doubts remain, reading this article, I suppose, should clear it to him! I have had a long innings too! I am no David Levy or Charles Messier, but nevertheless a self proclaimed observer reporting with scientific honesty. 

Comet McNaught

over Iceland on 9 January

Comet McNaught 

in broad daylight, visible to naked eye. 

Taken on 13 January at 14:00 UTC in 

Gais, Switzerland.

Wish you Clear Skies!

{Courtesy: Web pages and Wikipedia for the pictures and some details.}

In continuation...

Atlast, today morning Wednesday October the 3rd, between 5.10 am (IST) up until 5.40 am, I could see the comet plainly with the naked eye and with 10x50 binoculars. There the nucleus, like a pin head with a surrounding coma extending into a nearly three degree tail was very conspicuous, and I felt something odd about the nucleus as though it's bifid or even trifid. Nevertheless, it was something rare to have seen a comet with a nucleus, coma and a fanning tail with the unaided eye. In binocular observation it was quite clear and sharp. This comet adds up to my collection of having seen and observed comets Hale Bopp, Hyakutake and McNaught. Place: Kanchipuram, India, Time between 5.10 to 5.40 am (IST). [UT 5h30' difference]. Magnitude: ? Polaris being 2nd mag, and a bit elusive at 13 degrees, I could say, this diffuse object could be mag 1 for the nucleus and 2 for the tail. Just my guess. 

[Observers: Myself, Aravind, & Meena.

Photos: cropped monocular shot of the binocular view: by Anand, taken through Samsung M14; All sky view: by Aravind taken through Samsung M30].

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) 

in the constellation of Leo, 

at a distance of 

108,370,871.7 kilometers from Earth.