Espace L60
Astronomy with a 60 mm refractor

 




Comet Liller, L60x40 (= 60mm refractor, 40x).
Note the fan-shaped dust tail, the thin gas tail,
and the structure around the core. 

 

The comets

If binoculars are the most usual instruments to locate them, small refractors are able to reveal structure on certain comets. According to the table below, note that an average of two comets per year are visible with such an aperture.

By observing comets and estimating their magnitude with small instruments, the amateur helps the international astronomical community. Sometimes, the IAU website mentions, on its page of comets magnitude estimates and certain circulars, observations with a simple pair of 50mm binoculars.
Some comet drawings by Jean-Raphaël Gilis and  Laurent Ferrero. 


The table below indexes potentially visible comets in the range of 60 mm refractors since 1986.

NE = Naked Eye, B = Binoculars, R = Refractor. Example: 50x7B = 7x50 Binoculars
Last update 2005/03/09

 

Comet Instrument Date  Mag Observer Location Web.Ref. Image Description
                 
2008                
46P/Wirtanen 10x50 29/01 8,4 J.J.Gonzalez Spain (43°N)      
                 
2007                 
8P/Tuttle     7,5          
17P/Holmes ON 24/07 2,5 Biver France      
C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) 20x50 20/10 5,8 A. Diepvens Belgium      
C/2006 VZ13 10x50 08/07 8,0 Biver France   JR.Gilis   
C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) J63x9 17/04 7,8 Kamerer Germany      
C/2006 P1 (Mc Naught) ON 13/01 -4,0   France      
                 
2006                
C/2006 M4 (SWAN) J50x7 22/09 7,0 Diepvens Belgium      
177P/2006 M3 (Barnard) J50x7 28/08 8,3 Gonzalez Spain      
C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) J50x7 27/02 5 Biver SAF 
73P (SW)
2005
C/2003 T4 J50x7 13/03 7,9 Biver SAF
C/2005 K2 J50x7 11/06 9,2 Biver   SAF    
2004
C/2001 Q2 (Maccholz) NE 3,5     UAI   JR.Gilis
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) NE 4,5 Meyer Germany UAI JR.Gilis
C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) 50x7B 4,8 Scarmato Italy UAI
C/2003 K4
(LINEAR) 		50x7B 8,0 UAI JR.Gilis
C/2004 F4
(Bradfield)		 J50x7 4,0 UAI
2003
C/2002 Y1
(Juels-Holvorcem) 		 50x7B 04/18 6,1 JJ. Gonzalez Spain UAI    
2002
C/2002 V1 (NEAT) 50x7B 12/29 7,8 T.Scarmato Italy UAI    
C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa) 50x7B 12/27 6,5 T.Scarmato Italy UAI    
C/2002 O6 (SWAN) 50B 08/15 6,4 Hasubick Germany DE JR.Gilis  
C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) 50B 08/15 7,9 Hasubick Germany DE JR.Gilis  
C/2002 F1 (Utsunomya) 50x10B 04/11 5,6 J.Bortle NY,U.S.A. UAI JR.Gilis  
C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) NE 03/30 2,9 R. Haver Italy UAI JR.Gilis  
2001
C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) 50x7B 12/09 6,3 J.Serant France ICQ JR.Gilis  
C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) 50x10B 08/01 7,4 N.Biver Netherlands ICQ JR.Gilis  
2000
C/2000 W1 Utsunomiya-Jones 50x10B 12/07 6,5 A.Amorim Brasil UAI    
C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley) 50x7B 12/31 7,7 N.Biver France FR    
C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)  50x10B 07/23 6,4 N.Biver France FR   JR.Gilis
1999
C/1999 N2 (Lynn) 50x10B 07/13 8,0 D.W. Lynn Australia IAU, FR
C/1999 J3 (LINEAR) 50x7B 10/13 7,1 J. Kyselý Tchécoslovaquia CZ
C/1999 H1 (Lee) 50x7B 10/07 8,7 J. Kyselý Tchécoslovaquia CZ
1998
55P/Tempel-Tuttle 50B 01/25 7,7 Hasubick Germany      
21P/Giacobini-Zinner 63B 08/21 8,2 Kammerer Germany      
C/1998 U5 (LINEAR) 63B 11/18 8,6 Kammerer Germany      
C/1998 J1 (SOHO) NE ? Germany O.Farago Remarque
1997
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) NE 03/28 -1,3 Hasubick Germany DE L.Ferrero
C/1997 K2 ? ?
1996
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) 50B 06/11 6,1 Kriebel Germany DE
C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) NE 03/25 -0,6 M.Meyer Germany DE
C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) 50x8B 09/27 5,8 Richert Germany DE
22P/Kopff 50B 07/07 8,3 Lüthen Germany DE
C/1996 N1 (Brewington) 60B 07/16 8,9 Lüthen Germany DE
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Padjusakova 63B 01/31 7,2 Kammerer Germany DE
1995
122P/de Vico 50x10B 09/19 6,4 J.E. Bortle USA CZ (DE) Tsukasa Noda
6P/d'Arrest 50x10B 08/29 6.8 J.E. Bortle USA UK
1994
Jupiter/SL9 Impacts 50R 07/16 US
C/1995 Q1 Bradfield 50B 09/29 7,5 Guthier Germany?  DE
19P/Borelly  63B 12/06 7,9 Kammerer Germany DE
2P/Encke 50x10B 01/07 8,5 A. Vincent UK UK
1993
Schaumasse 50B 02/17 8,5 Möller Germany DE
McNaught-Russell  50B 03/26 6,9 Möller Germany DE
1992
109/P Swift-Tuttle 50B 10/20 6.5 Lüthen Germany DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1992 F1 Tanaka-Machholz 20x7 ? 05/11 6,7 T.Tanti Malte UK
1991
4P/Faye 60R 10/14 8,5 Jahn  Germany DE
103P/Hartley 2 50x8B 10/21 8,9 S.Beaumont UK UK
1990
C/1989 X1 Austin  NE 05/18 4,9 van Loo Germany? DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1990 K1 Levy NE 08/16 4,4 Monz Germany? DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1990 N1 Tsuchiya-Kiuchi 50R 10/23 7,2 Jahn Germany DE
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova 50x10B 02/01 7,1 J. E. Bortle USA IAU
C/1990 E1 Cernis-Kiuchi-Nakamura 50x10B 03/17 8,1 A. Hale New Mexico IAU
1989
23/P Brorsen-Metcalf 50B 08/30 5,2 Möller Germany DE JR.Gilis JR.Gilis
C/1989 Q1 Okasaki-Levy-Rudenko NE 11/09 5,5 Jäger Germany? DE (IT) Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1989 W1 Aarseth-Brewington 50x7B 12/18 4,2 Yougoslavia YU(DE) Tsukasa Noda
1988
C/1988 A1 Liller NE 04/22 5,4 Bh.Koch Germany? DE JR.Gilis JR.Gilis
C/1988 J Machholz 63x9B 09/03 7,4 R. H.
McNaught		 Australia
(France?)		 IAU JR.Gilis
1987
19P/Borelly  50B 12/20 7,5 Bh.Koch Germany? DE
Bradfield NE 12/15 5,0 Jäger Germany? DE Tsukasa Noda
Encke 50x7B 07/21 7,1 GW.Wolf New Zeland US
1986
P/Halley NE 12/06 5,5 Hasubick Germany DE JR.Gilis JR.Gilis

 

Here are interesting links and sites from which this table was built, in addition to personal observations. 
French sites:

Binocular Comets : Marc Chapelet's home page (comets brighter than 8th magnitude) and Philippe Roux's home page (binocular comets). 

Cometary drawings and recent cometary observations, personal page of Nicolas Biver.
"Hunting" comets, Julien Leroux's home page. 

 

Sites in foreign language:
Comets visible with a 115 mm telescope, from1989 to 1991
http://personaltmlp.com/richard/list.htm

Bright Comets
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/bright_comet.html#recent

IAU , astronomical telegrams ( Authorization Required )
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/

German comet observations since 1984
http://www.fg-kometen.de/obsarce.htm

Czech society of astronomy (Jan Kyselý, Maciej Reszelski)
http://www.astro.cz/index.php/en_EN

Interesting photographs

Photographing bright comets with a teleobjective, by Tsukasa Noda (Japan)
 Comet SOHO 1998 J1 photographed in Stuttgart (Germany) and in Australia (1), (2), under better conditions! 

 [Introduction]
[Sun] / [Moon] / [Planets] / [Deep Sky] / [Comets]
[Drawing] / [Photo] / [Webcam] / [CCD]
[Instruments] / [Books] / [Links]


Home

Webmaster : Jean-Raphaël Gilis