Observing Comet Catalina

The cold and clear mornings we have had recently provided a few opportunities to get some good observations of Comet Catalina C/2013 US10. After reading about the many comets that were visible through small telescopes and binoculars, on the morning of January 5, 2016, at 5:15 am, I thought I would take a shot at locating Comet Catalina with my 9x63 binoculars. 

Using the comet finder chart provided online by Sky and Telescope magazine, the comet was shown to be located a few degrees north of Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes (Herdsman or Plowman). As I made my first attempt to locate the "dirty snowball" through my binoculars, I almost immediately spotted a condensed "fuzzy" object very close to the area the comet should be. I wasn't convinced this was the comet as it resembled a globular cluster. From my experiences of deep-sky observing, I was convinced it was M3, a bright globular cluster located in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs of Boötes the Herdsman, very close to the border of Boötes. I then slewed my binoculars a few degrees to the southeast and there it was! The comet appeared as a much fainter patch of condensed light. As twilight matured, the sky became brighter and the comet became harder to see. I leaned back against my SUV in the driveway and took in the amazing view of the planets lined up throughout the Zodiac. There was Jupiter to the west, Mars to the east, Venus, the waning crescent Moon, and last Saturn in the glow of the sunlight.

Comet Catalina - Imaged by Insight Observatory.

After spotting Comet Catalina on that frigid morning, I was inspired to get a closer look at it with a 10" Dobsonian reflector telescope. However, the weather didn't cooperate the next day, so I waited one more day. Fortunately, the weather did provide another opportunity to observe the comet on the morning of January 7, 2016. The comet moved throughout the constellation within the few days since the first time I spotted it. The object was pretty much the same magnitude (brightness) as the previous time I viewed it. However, this time, I could resolve the nucleus enveloped in a diffused nebulous "cloud" due to the higher magnification of the telescope.

After studying the comet with the telescope that morning, the weather on the Cape was non-cooperative for close to a week afterward. However, surprisingly this past Friday, morning, January 15, 2016, around 5:30 am, the sky was perfectly clear. I went out on the front porch with my binoculars to see if I could locate it without any finder charts. I knew it was supposed to be near the handle of the Big Dipper from seeing images taken by others the previous days. I started scanning the area of the handle and spotted the comet again immediately. It seemed to have brightened a bit from the last time I saw it. The comet was very close to the last star in the handle of the Big Dipper named Alkaid. The bright star and Catalina were in the same field of view through my binoculars. It was quite a sight!

Comet Catalina - Imaged by Raffaelle Esposito.

Inspired by this view of the comet, I then went to my computer and logged into the iTelescope remote robotic telescope network (utilized by Insight Observatory) and connected to their telescope with a one-shot color CCD camera connected to it. The telescopes were very busy that morning, however, T3 became available and I jumped on and imaged the comet for 5 minutes as pictured in this post. Later during the day on Friday, I came across a great image of the comet captured by Raffaele Esposito on January 14, 2016 (pictured left) with the bright star Alkaid and the spiral galaxy NGC 5448 behind the comet's tail.

Some Interesting Facts About Comet Catalina C/2013 US10:

C/2013 US10 is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 31 October 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey at an apparent magnitude of 19 using a 0.68-meter Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. As of September 2015, the comet became apparent magnitude 6.

The comet reached its perihelion (its closest point to the sun) at a distance of 76 million miles (122 million kilometers) on November 15 and as it slingshotted past the sun, Catalina reached a velocity of 103,000 miles per hour (166,000 kilometers per hour), which is almost three times the speed of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. The velocity means that the comet is on an escape trajectory from the solar system and will never return.

The comet passes closest to Earth at 0.72 a.u. on January 12th, then buzzes Mizar in the Big Dipper's handle on January 14–15, hurrying along at the rate of 2° per day or 5′ an hour — fast enough to easily detect motion in 30 minutes or less. After mid-month, it's expected to fade quickly.

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An Astrobiologist's Brief View on Life

What are life-forms on Earth, made of? What about celestial objects, like other planets, comets, asteroids, and stars – what are they made of?

As can be shown, by an instrument known as a mass spectrometer, they all share the same, fundamental chemistry of Earth and its companion planets. All of these are made from the common chemicals, minerals, and metals that are found in and on the Earth.

MACSJ0717.5+3745 Galaxy Cluster Imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Living organisms - animal, bacterial, fungal, and floral, are composed of various combinations of these elements, which express themselves in varying molecular arrangements and can be found in the Periodic Table of the Elements. The myriad of potential arrangements accounts for the diversity of life on this planet.

Beyond hydrogen, all of this chemistry - entry but if it - was forged in the interiors of stars, namely, a type of star called a supernova.

A supernova is a catastrophic, stellar event, in which, the progenitor star collapses under its own weight, then, rebounds, blowing itself to smithereens - much of it, reduced to atomic nuclei. Due to a process called stellar nucleosynthesis (fusion reactions that take place at a star’s core, at extreme temperatures), at a certain temperature all of those elements are converted, one from the other, from the available hydrogen fuel; hydrogen converted to helium; helium to lithium; lithium to beryllium, and on to the heavy metals.

The galaxies (galaxies are, simply, large collections of stars, bound by a common gravitational field) and all of the planets of our solar system, its comets, asteroids, and our star, the Sun, and the exoplanets orbiting other stars (more than 2,000 have been confirmed by NASA/JPL and more than 350 are Earth-like) - all of these - including our very selves - are composed of these various molecular arrangements of those elements. Living things are not made up of some unique, special or mysterious substance. Cornell professor of astronomy and exobiologist, Carl Sagan, once made this accurate statement: “We are all star-stuff.”

Every niche, on this planet, is aggressively occupied by some form of life; no territory is wasted. Earth and its supporting star, the Sun, are rather average places; there is nothing outstanding about our Solar system – the sun and its planets - and, possibly, even ourselves, and yet, life arose here just the same. So, what are the chances of life arising elsewhere, in our or other galaxies in the universe? It seems to me that life, will, ultimately prove to be the rule and not the exception.

Dale Alan Bryant
Senior Contributing Science Writer

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An Introduction to Astronomy and Stargazing

Mankind has always been fascinated with the heavens since time immemorial. Stargazing was not just a pastime on lovely nights. People navigated the seas and crossed continents with stars as their guide. They even thought the constellations charted their fates. But that was before the giant leap from astrology to astronomy. 

Stargazer

Astronomy literally means 'law of the stars,' from the Greek words 'Astron' (star) and 'nomos' (law), but astronomers would rather accurately define it as the 'scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation), and is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe.'

However, long-winded Wikipedia's definition seems, don't let it tick you off. There's more to astronomy than theories, calculations, and tedious observations. One thing's certain, though: astronomy is not for jocks.

However, don't get the impression that you need a PhD in astrophysics to get suitably curious with the fascinating display of stars on a clear moonless night. Amateur astronomers have made many important astronomical discoveries. In fact, astronomical societies encourage the involvement of amateur observers, the sky being too wide for just professional astronomers to cover.

By Jim Oneil

Article Source:  An Introduction to Astronomy and Stargazing

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