Comet Encke, any one know the situation?

According to my information, Comet Encke should be right off the left
hand star of the 'Northern Cross' in Cygnus. It also was predicted to
be easily visible in 7x50 binocs by this point, even in surburban
backyards. I know such predictions are variable.

Well, I have been seeking it for three days with 15x70 binocs, and I
do not even catch a potential haze of an object. I would expect if it
were not flaring up, that an observer might catch a faint globular
like haze, but I know exactly where to look and I see nada, zilch,
zero... averted vision included.

Any one else having success teasing this one out? Tomorrow night, it
should pass right next to the leftmost star of the Northern Cross, but
we have cloudy skies predicted...

For those unaware, you have until about Dec. 10th to observe it until
it is swallowed by the light of dusk. It should keep brightening...

- Livingston

"Livingston" wrote in message
...
According to my information, Comet Encke should be right off the left
hand star of the 'Northern Cross' in Cygnus. It also was predicted to
be easily visible in 7x50 binocs by this point, even in surburban
backyards. I know such predictions are variable.

Well, I have been seeking it for three days with 15x70 binocs, and I
do not even catch a potential haze of an object. I would expect if it
were not flaring up, that an observer might catch a faint globular
like haze, but I know exactly where to look and I see nada, zilch,
zero... averted vision included.

Any one else having success teasing this one out? Tomorrow night, it
should pass right next to the leftmost star of the Northern Cross, but
we have cloudy skies predicted...

For those unaware, you have until about Dec. 10th to observe it until
it is swallowed by the light of dusk. It should keep brightening...

- Livingston

The moon has been quite bright for the past few nights and will continue to
be bright for a few more days -- could that be the problem?


--

----

Joe S.

According to my information, Comet Encke should be right off the left
hand star of the 'Northern Cross' in Cygnus. It also was predicted to
be easily visible in 7x50 binocs by this point, even in surburban
backyards. I know such predictions are variable.


Well...first you need to have competent people preparing the published
articles/predictions. That's not what happened this time around, I'm afraid.
The nonsense that appeared in various publications about this return being the
most favorable in decades failed to take into account P/Encke's physical
appearance.

On the way to perihelion P/Encke normally displays a fair-sized but very
diffuse coma. However, on occasions when the comet reaches perigee some 45 days
before perihelion it comes quite close to Earth, spreading out its light over a
very much larger surface area. Currently, P/Encke is about 0.28AU from Earth
and its coma subtends something like 11'-15'. With a magnitude of 8.0-8.5 this
makes for a _very_ low surface brightness. I saw P/Encke during Saturday
night's eclipse and it was quite difficult to see with 15x70B from a site with
fairly dark skies. Odds are that it won't become an easy binocular object for
at least another ten days to two weeks, just about the time the moon will be
about to return to the evening sky. That leaves a very small window for
observations by most amateur astronomers.

JB

Thanks for the information. Too bad Cygnus has set... on Thursday
or Friday evening, if the forecast holds, I will take out the 8" scope
and attempt to bag this one. I will also keep the timeline in mind you
have mentioned along with considering the Moon's phase, but in all
honesty I think I would be lucky right now to get one decent observing
day per week in central New Jersey, and I am not asking for great
skies and seeing, just passable... I must take the opportunity when it
presents itself, optimal timing or not.

- Livingston

Well...first you need to have competent people preparing the published
articles/predictions. That's not what happened this time around, I'm afraid.
The nonsense that appeared in various publications about this return being the
most favorable in decades failed to take into account P/Encke's physical
appearance.

On the way to perihelion P/Encke normally displays a fair-sized but very
diffuse coma. However, on occasions when the comet reaches perigee some 45 days
before perihelion it comes quite close to Earth, spreading out its light over a
very much larger surface area. Currently, P/Encke is about 0.28AU from Earth
and its coma subtends something like 11'-15'. With a magnitude of 8.0-8.5 this
makes for a _very_ low surface brightness. I saw P/Encke during Saturday
night's eclipse and it was quite difficult to see with 15x70B from a site with
fairly dark skies. Odds are that it won't become an easy binocular object for
at least another ten days to two weeks, just about the time the moon will be
about to return to the evening sky. That leaves a very small window for
observations by most amateur astronomers.

JB

The moon has been quite bright for the past few nights and will continue to
be bright for a few more days -- could that be the problem?

I think it is definitely part of the equation, but the inaccurate
information I had, I think, would have suggested I could spot the coma
and would just lose out on some portion (if not all) of the tail...

The sideshooter is staying in the holster and the shotgun is coming
out next time, hopefully this weekend.

- Livingston