Just finished an observing session with Comet Swan. It's about 6th mag. halfway between the handle of the big dipper and Arcturus. My first impression was of a faint globular cluster with no stars resolved. The coma was very diffuse and was no stellar condensation, just a misty patch of light. There was no tail visible, but that was probably because of light pollution. Good luck to anyone else who tries to find it.

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I saw it last night--there was very little light pollution in Western Howard County, MD (e.g. Milky Way was clear and bright, though Baltimore glow was visible to the east). No tail was visible then either. I think it's faint enough that only photographs or really big telescopes could get it. But the nucleus/coma is very bright, even in binoculars.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

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Comet Swan in outburst.

http://spaceweather.com

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I am disappointed to have an overcast sky here. The ISS was bright enough to be seen through the clouds but not even many stars are visible. No chance for the comet tonight.

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Saw it last night, and was quite impressed. Brightest comet I've seen since buying a telescope. Appeared round, like a globular cluster, about twice as bright as M13, but with a distinct, almost planetary core. And dust did not resolve itself with averted vision, as stars in a M13 will.

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I saw it this evening through thin clouds with 7x35 and 20x80 binoculars. I hadn't managed to find it when it was a morning object, so I was pleased.

im going to assume you cant view this inside the tampa/st pete metro? i couldnt find it out there

BAH!!

Clouds all week and for days to come.

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Just saw it for the first time since before its outburst. It's in the same binocular field of view as M-13, and is considerably brighter. Burnhams list M-13 as 5.7 mag. Swan appears to be as bright as 5th mag. 53 Hercules. But considering its light is spread out, could be brighter. Burnhams list M-13s size as 23' and Swan was just as big, but with the light pollution it was hard to tell where the comet stopped and the bright background sky started.

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

I finally saw it. With the moonlight and Aurora Borealis both shining I don't have a very dark sky here. I can not see the comet with the naked eye but it is no problem with 10x50s.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

Finder charts and a light curve that shows how much the comet brightened in the last couple of days.

http://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006M4/2006M4.html

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

I guess I'm more a theoretical cosmologist, but I check in on you observational astronomers once in a while. I had a great pair of hi-magnification wide-field binoculars before I moved to Tokyo, but after I got back, I couldn't find 'em. It wouldn't have mattered, living 2.1 miles from the center Salt Lake City, Utah (don't ask). Comet Swan. It's apparently out there, but I haven't seen it.

My attraction to this thread involves the numerous galaxy morphologies evident in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field that resemble Canada Geese or, alternatively, SWANS, in flight.... Don't MAKE me show you photos, as this could take weeks or months of cropping, sharpening, resizing, and saturating.

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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

I saw the comet last night through my Celestron 11 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The description of the core as being planetary was probably made because the core did appear very round and bright. There was no tail but lots of gas around the core. It also seems that the brightness of the fuzziness around the core changed...(I'm not absolutely positive of this but it sure seemed that way). It also seems at times that the core was VERY clear and distintive and at other times during the viewing that the core was blurry and not as clear, almost as if gases around the core were altering the view. I realize that the apparent changes that I witnessed may have also been due to our own atmosphere and radiational heat from the Earth. Anyway, it was a great viewing!

i saw it through the haze and sodium glare and through the thermal screw ups you get when you stick binocs out of an apartment window. (yes, i like to stack the deck against me).

in 10x50s the comet looks almost identical to the glob cluster in Hercules. Just down and to the left and its the same thing all over again. Time permitting, I'm going to try and find a dark site before the week's out to go see it again.

john

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