my frozen telescope
Taken by apollo lasky on December 6, 2018 @ naperville, il
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  Camera Used: Apple iPad Pro
Exposure Time: 1/15
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO: 200
Date Taken: 2018:12:07 02:37:42
  
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spent three hours trying to find the "full moon sized" comet wiratem, which should of been by all means the easiest thing to locate directly to the next to the leg of orions , directly under the pleadies. I spent three hours with a wide field 45mm eyepiece and found nothing but frost on my telescope. This is by no means, a visible full moon sized comet. It is NOT full moon sized by through ANYthing but an extremely sensitive astronomical camera using long exposure time. Not at all visible with an eyepiece, nor easily visible using a 90mm x 800mm scope. I dont who determined this was going to be full moon sized easy target, but if I could not find it in a clear illinois sky with perfect seeing. you Aint gonna see it with an eyepiece unless some spectacular solar explosion happens and rips the ions off this thing/ I spent so much time looking, that my scope literally frosted over. I am an expert telescope imager, and this thing is NOT at all visible with an eyeball in illinois. Seriously, with the location under pleadies and next to orion the way it is, it should of just popped out like a green light. It aint there visibly.
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Apollo,

Sorry you did not have any luck finding 46P tonight, I have had my telescope freeze up solid with ice when trying to use it in the fall/winter in North Dakota, so I feel your pain.

As for finding 46P tonight, 46P was 34 degrees SSW of the Pleiades tonight. The comet will slowly over the next 9 nights get closer to the Pleiades and on the morning of December 16 the comet will be 4 degrees southeast of the Pleiades. I hope this helps, trying to find things in the night sky that one cant see with his eyes is not easy. The comet is about magnitude 5 right now but that magnitude estimate is spread out over 1/2 degree so it is a bit misleading. It will probably be a small fuzzy white blob in your telescope with an average power eyepiece. You are correct in that to see the entire 1/2 degree of the comet coma would require imaging time with a camera. I would suggest binoculars to find it, a lot easier with a nice field of view, then you will know where to point your telescope. Good luck and clear skies!

Mike Olason
Posted by Icylander2 2018-12-07 03:38:23
I have seen the comet very easily from binoculars, and marginally to the unaided eye, from a semi rural sky. It looked roughly two this a the size of the Full Moon. The key is light pollution. Although its total brightness is relatively high, the light is spread out so much that if there is much light pollution, the comet will be very hard to spot. If you viewed from your home, Naperville is itself a large suburb, and also too to Chicago.
Posted by regulus61 2018-12-07 06:09:21
I have seen the comet very easily from binoculars, and marginally to the unaided eye, from a semi rural sky. It looked roughly two this a the size of the Full Moon. The key is light pollution. Although its total brightness is relatively high, the light is spread out so much that if there is much light pollution, the comet will be very hard to spot. If you viewed from your home, Naperville is itself a large suburb, and also too close to Chicago.
Posted by regulus61 2018-12-07 06:11:15
Apollo I used to live in downers grove il. for the people that dont no its about 5 miles from you. when hale bopp came I went to our place up north and called my wife and said do you see it? she said no (it was spectacular in dark skys) when I came home I took her out side and said its right there but there was nothing but a faint fuzzball the size of a erasier on the tip of a pencil. I was like WOW!! ive seen your pics here and there great but when you get to these really faint objects you realize just how lit up your sky is. I took a photo of orion from Huntley ill that is about 60 miles from Chicago (much farther then Naperville il) and then a photo in my back yard in Interlochen Michigan and it was stunning how much light pollution there was. I showed it on this website awhile ago. ill put it up on here again look for it.....
Posted by blondedragon 2018-12-07 09:32:07
blondedragon: I saw hale bopp no problem from naperville! That was the first comet i ever got to look at and will remember it forever.
Posted by amplelight 2018-12-07 15:03:32
Apollo,

I am not sure what your field of view is with your eyepiece and telescope, but lets make a couple assumptions. If your FOV was a degree or so the contrast might not have been enough to easily show the comet and the low surface brightness of the coma as you swept the sky. Binoculars give you a good contrast due to the wide field of view and the fact that your eyes are good at catching things on the edge of the binocular field of view as you sweep the sky, accidental averted vision. The other thing that you did say was that your telescope frosted up pretty good, as we can see from your picture. If you did not have a dew heater near your front mirror, it could have had a thin layer of dew/frost on it from the very beginning of your observing session that was just enough to not allow you to catch the comet as you swept the sky. Just some thoughts as to why you may have missed it even though you swept through it. Dont give up, the hunt is part of the enjoyment! Anyway, time for me to take my binoculars out and see if I can find 46P.

Good luck and clear skies,

Mike Olason
Posted by Icylander2 2018-12-08 00:48:03
 
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