As far as I know all of Eastern Australia was clouded out (thanks to a front sending moisture down from the tropics), meaning that no one had a chance to look for Comet 2011 W3 (Lovejoy) this morning in the morning twilight sky. I have prepared finder charts for tomorrow morning in the hope that the sky will be clear tomorrow morning.
I used the highly recommended Sky Safari Pro Apple Ipad app to produce the above chart showing where the comet will be at 4 am AEST (5 am daylight savings time) tomorrow (Tuesday 20 December 2011) morning. Note that daylight was switched off so that the fainter stars are visible.
Above is the same region of sky but zoomed out for context. I have also set the controls to show daylight (or in this case morning twilight). The comet is still very close to the Sun. Over the next few days, Comet 2011 W3 will rapidly move away from the Sun but also rapidly fade. Hopefully clear weather will allow further observations. Note that the tail in the chart may not be accurate.
Paul, I recently purchased Sky Safari Pro, but I can’t find the Lovejoy comet using it. What did you do to generate the chart?
Regards
Rod
Rod,
Firstly, don’t panic! I did that then realised I had to tell the programme to display comets! To this go to the settings, then the Solar System section. There is a slider on the right hand bottom side to tell the programme to display comets. I would also update the ‘minor body orbit data. That is underneath the slider.
Let me know if that helps.
Regards,
Paul Floyd.
Ahh, the old update the data trick.
Thanks Paul, it worked.