This object is now designated as DM001 on the Posssible Comet Confimation Page of the Minor Planet Center
Róbert Fidrich Photometry of performed by Daniel Bamberger on my 60-60s CCD images made using T20 refractor with green filters at itelescope.net Mayhill, NM show 10.2 magnitude total brighness.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/flb6mbw4r33eer9/machholz.gif?dl=0
This looks worth following up :-) I tried to get the ephemerides from JPL/MPC but inputting DM001 is not recognised. Any guidance on what/where to search for would be welcomed.
Thanks
Helen
Hi Helen, here is a preliminary ephemeris by Nakano published on CBET 4569
Nakano provides the following preliminary ephemeris for the comet:
2018 TT R.A. (2000) Decl. Delta r
Nov. 5 12 06.22 -02 26.5 1.549 1.013
6 12 10.91 -02 21.2 1.549 1.012
7 12 15.60 -02 15.7 1.550 1.011
8 12 20.29 -02 10.2 1.550 1.011
9 12 24.97 -02 04.6 1.551 1.012
10 12 29.64 -01 59.0 1.552 1.012
11 12 34.30 -01 53.3 1.553 1.013
12 12 38.95 -01 47.6 1.555 1.014
13 12 43.59 -01 41.8 1.556 1.015
14 12 48.22 -01 36.0 1.558 1.017
15 12 52.84 -01 30.2 1.560 1.019
Thanks Denis :-) for both the data and the reference
I have time on the Faulkes Telescope and so was hoping to gather some useful data on this comet - no chance of doing it from home!
Helen
Denis and I managed to image this comet this morning from Scotland. I've just posted a very quick process of one of the images here.
Very nice. Hopefully I’ll be granted a half hour patch of clear skies in the morning some day soon. D
I believe Peter Carson and Andrew Robertson saw this visually with an 18" telescope from Suffolk this morning.proving that East Anglia does have the best weather :-) I am sure they will comment further.
Owen
Owen. Yes, Andrew Robertson and Peter Carson had a good view through Andrew's 18-inch telescope at Haw Wood. They commented that the comet was bright and easy.
The latest ephemeris is here using all astrometry I have so far. I've done this starting 60 days before now and the positional uncertainties are now quite small. The comet has been at a small elongation for all of this time and was discovered when it was at its largest elongation. This is now decreasing. The comet has a small q (0.39 au) and is brightening rapidly.
Please try to observe this comet at any opportunity.
Nick.
What sort of brightness are we thinking?
Tuesday morning is looking clear here....
Probably 7.5 - 8.0 this morning. Any predictions will be very unreliable since it could be in the final stages of a bright outburst or not. Getting up early to observe it is the only way to find out!
My sketch from this morning attached. Location Haw Wood, Suffolk, 18" F4.5 Dobsonian, 13mm Ethos e/p, x160.Thanks to Owen for alerting me (I had no e-mail) and Nick for the latest accurate co-ordinates.
Andrew
Official designation is C/2018 V1.
Clear skies this morning - 12/11/2018 05:08. Still quite bright, with ion tail visible.
Found this (!) frame in the set.
Beautiful!
DDP tends to bloat the stars and make them furry. Here's a clearer image with the ion tail quite distinct. 12 x 10s, midpoint 05:14:30.
As Nick has said, the orbit is obviously very well determined. I updated MPCORB in Astrometrica, and the comet was spot on the predicted position.
David - Great image showing the tail. Denis and I managed to get some astrometry on it this morning but the conditions were poor so our images are rubbish.
Here's a quick process of a widefield image I took this morning with Denis Buczynski in northern Scotland. I'll do a better job of processing this later and put the result on my members page. The galaxy is NGC4753.
Am I imagining things, or are there two tails in this image?
Yes there is. You can see it better in the stack attached. This is stacked on stars so the comet is trailed and the background is not yet sorted but it shows the ion tail going out of the field.
Also caught C/2018 V1 this morning with C8 Hyperstar and ASI183MM 20x20sec exp. Tail shows up on this reversed image.
David