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There are
currently four fairly bright comets in the morning sky to image.
However, Comet Linear X1 (exploding jellyfish) is very low and
in the trees at 5:15 and Comet Encke is way below the trees even
at bright twilight. The two that are visible are Comets Lovejoy,
now at a naked eye 6th magnitude, and Comet ISON, currently around
8.5 for the head. Lovejoy is the star in the morning sky, I could
see it very clearly in the 9x63 binoculars and it was gorgeous
in the 11 x 80s. The comet is very bright green, and has a trace
of a thin ion tail in some images.
Comet ISON is not
doing well. The head is brighter no doubt than a week ago, but
it is no where near naked eye, and I could only see the head
in the binoculars, not a trace of the very low surface brightness
strip like tail. It is now only 20 days from perihelion, and
something better happen really fast if this is going to break
naked eye brightness or more.
Both comets are
moving quite fast! I cold not guide on the stars and exceed a
minute exposure for each comet at a time without hopelessly blurring
the comet as a streak. This pair of images are many such exposures
combined in the digital darkroom to keep the comet stationary
in the image, while the stars streak by. For those interested,
the field here is roughly 3/4 of a degree wide.
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