Comet McNaught Heads for the Sun Credit & Copyright: Michael Jager and Gerald Rhemann Explanation: Early morning risers with a clear and unobstructed eastern horizon can enjoy the sight of Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) in dawn skies over the next few days. Discovered in August by R. H. McNaught (Siding Spring Survey) the comet has grown bright enough to see with the unaided eye but will soon be lost in the glare of the Sun. Still, by January 11 sun-staring spacecraft SOHO should be able to offer web-based views as the comet heads toward a perihelion passage inside the orbit of Mercury. This image captures the new naked-eye comet at about 2nd magnitude in twilight skies near sunset on January 3rd. After rounding the Sun and emerging from the solar glare later this month, Comet McNaught could be even brighter.
I remember very clearly my first post perihelion view of Halley very low in the east. It was about the same angular distance from the sun as McNaught is now and I made it around mag 2.3 or so. A very beautiful sight seeing the bright yellow coma and dust tail against the blue twilight. However Comet McNaught is even brighter
Just noticed a wider angle shot from Austria has just been posted:
In the image to the left (above the 'D' in 300D) is star Gamma Aquila which is magnitude 3.4. Note how much brighter the comet is despite being lower and deeper in twilight! It is currently being estimated around magnitude 1.5 by a number of people.
I wouldn't be suprised if you succeed in a daylight observation within a few days, especially if you could see Mars. Remember the coma will not be as concentrated as the disk of Mars just yet (Mars is 4" diameter, the comet is 1' across). But the coma is brightening and becoming more concentrated.
With a week to go to perihelion, latest observations indicate the coma has brightened to magnitude 1.0 I also notice a few naked eye observations starting to be reported. Have a look at the comet's development in the space of 2 days:
The next few days are going to be interesting as the solar elongation only drops slightly but the brightness increases to perhaps mag 0 or -1. Once the moon is clear of the evening there is chance we may see reports of a tail extending out into the evening sky from high northern latitudes.
5 Jan 2007: Comet McNaught C/2006 P1 is a bright but very low object at both dusk and dawn. Appears rather like Mercury with a tail, about 1st magnitude. Photo by J.O'Neill with a 200mm lens (5th Jan 2007 at 17.17 UT). The comet is now near 3.4 mag Lambda Aquilae which is too faint to appear in the photo.
Just successfully managed to photograph the comet from Brisbane just after noon using a Takahashi E160 + Canon 350D. The attached image is 34 x 1/1250 sec exposures at ISO100. Its not, much I have a lot more images to process and I have not properly calibrated the images yet. I'll have a better feel for the brightness once processing is done tonight, but I am confident the brightness is around mag 0.
Here is the full processed version. Note the sunward extension from the coma (the actual tail is not visible). I measured mag 0.3, but then its likely not all the coma is visible.
Scott, this was a tough processing challenge! I made 5 sets of 17 second exposures. I was able to acquire 17 exposures in well under a minute and so didn't need to register them (my drive is good enough to achieve this). The comet was easily visible on a 17 second stack. After ending up with 5 images (each consisting of 17 exposures) I was able to register on the comet and stack these to get the final image. Actually there were 18 frames in the 5th set so all up this is a 86 x 0.0008 second stack!
Also I do not have a goto drive and rely on manual setting circles, all adding to the challenge .
The comet has been brightening very rapidly, it is a lot brighter than it was yesterday. Its not suprising you didn't succeed the other day.
Gotcha!
Heres the comet at 3:30pm today.
Taken in IR 800nm and longer light
2x 1/90th sec,ISO 100 , IR pass filter, modded 350D, heavily contrast stretched. I know for a fact its the comet as its the only thing that had moved (the 2 shots taken without drive on about 2 secs apart) I manually aligned the 2 images with Photoshop.
10inch f5.6 newtonian.
It HAS brightened as I didnt expect to get it as sky was VERY bright due to haze from strong southerly and low cloud.
Its gonna be a ripper of a comet
Scott
Well done Scott, even the slightest bit of haze can make this observation very much harder.
I've just started going through my images today, conditions were not ideal with thin cirrus and haze but I still managed to find of few images nearly clear of cloud and wow has the comet brightened in just 24 hours. Please Keep in mind yesterday's image was 86 x 0.0008 seconds whereas the attached image, made in hazier conditions was just 4 x 0.0008 seconds. Some approximate photometry places the comet between mag -0.5 to -1! I have plenty more images to go through tonight so hopefully I'll get a better final image.
Its meant to be clearing on Wednesday here but I am not sure if I can get much closer to the sun as light is starting to enter the tube. I might have to extend the dew shield even further!
These are some pics taken by Alan dyer in canada.From his home in Alberta Latitude 50 degrees North.Taken in Twilight. this shows you how bright it is.Canon 20D . tony They were taken on the 6th and 7th of Jan.
)
. Michael Jaeger who made that image said he drove 5 hours to find a clear sky to get that shot! 
tony They were taken on the 6th and 7th of Jan.
