Maurice Gavin wrote:
Thanks Greg - any idea where one can get a daily ephemeris [for say
2200UT to suit me in UK!] for these two comets? My websearch only
gave 5 day ? intervals which make finding them hopeless ;-(

Just about any astronomy software program (even free ones) will produce
an ephemeris -- that's the easy part. It's simply a matter of getting
the latest orbital elements into the program. But as an avid comet
observer I've found that one usually needs more than just the position
of the comet to find it successfully; unless one has a great deal of
experience observing comets it is essential to have realistic magnitude
and coma diameter parameters that reflect recent observations. With
this information you not only know where to look but what to look for.

Have a look here to see what software written with comet observing in
mind can do for you (shameless plug):

http://www.skyhound.com/comets.html

With the right software you can expect to be finding comets on just
about any night, rather than only when the big bright ones come along.
A lot of people don't seem to realize that. I have fun at star parties
turning people's scopes to comets they didn't even know were there!

Note that I'll be updating my comet chasing page on Wednesday; it will
have latitude-specifc information and finder charts for all the comets
observable visually this month. That's he

http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html

Clear skies,
Greg

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply have a physician remove your spleen