Comet: 12P/Pons Brook
Constellation: Aries
Stars: AF Arie, k Ari, l Ari, q Ari, 10 Ari, 11 Ari, 14 Ari, 15 Ari, 17 Ari, 20 Ari, 21 Ari, Hamal
HD Stars: 13649, 13825
HR Stars: 655, 676
Location: home
Date: 2024-04-01
Time: 8:57 PM ADT
Equipment: 10x42 IS Binoculars
Transparency: Very Good (2)
Seeing: Very Good (2)
We received the following email from Dr. Roy Bishop via the RASC Halifax Centre Discussion List:
If you have not yet seen Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, early this evening is an excellent opportunity.
Last evening the comet was less than a degree to the left of mag 2 Hamal (alpha Arietis), making a pretty pair, side-by-side low in the WNW sky as darkness settled in. This evening the comet will be further from Hamal, but still less than two degrees to the left of the star. With Hamal flagging it, the comet will be easy to locate in binoculars.
Pons-Brooks displays a visible tail about half a degree long, extending straight up from the horizon, detectable in binoculars, and obvious in my 444-mm telescope last evening. The concentration of its coma was about 6 on the Levy scale (see p. 265 of your Handbook). I estimated the magnitude of the comet to be 4.5.
Comet Pons-Brooks has a 70-year period, and given the clouds of the next few days, and evening twilight extending ever later day-by-day, this evening around 9 p.m. may be your last chance to see it. You will need a low WNW horizon, for at 9 p.m.Hamal’s altitude is not much more than 12 or 13 degrees. Start looking for Hamal by 8:30 or 8:45.
Because Roy gave us the heads up, Jerry and I hurried to our bedroom window with binoculars in hand (much warmer than going outside) and looked WNW - et voila!
The round fuzzy was adjacent to Hamal in Aries, as promised. While viewing it, I sketched the star field. So exciting to see it so well; being slightly elevated above the ground level of our backyard certainly helped us to observe the comet.
