iTelescope makes it easy to image a comet!
- From the launchpad, login to a telescope
- Click on Comet/Neo Imaging on the left-hand side pane and read the instructions
- Click on comets/ Neo (under Imaging / Plan)—All you need is the comet's name—for example The current comet of interest is C2022 E3 ZTF as of (Jan/ Feb 2023. Fill in the details, save the plan and make a reservation.
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We make it easy for you! Here are more details.
Comets move fast across the sky. Telescopes have to use non-standard tracking rates to keep the comet in the centre of the camera.
iTelescope tries to make this easy for you, you simply can enter the comet name, and we will look it up for you like magic. However, since the comet moves fast, other astronomers make observations and these are used to re-compute the comet's orbital elements, which get refined over time by the Minor Planet Center.
When then the comet is close to Earth, these elements get updated often, and our provider may not have the latest orbital element. In this case, it means that the comet will not be framed correctly on the camera (appear off to one side).
Here is an example of an out-of-date orbital element vs a current element:
0107P 2022 08 24.6633 0.966639 0.631752 95.4418 266.7770 2.7992 20220814 9.0 4.0 107P/Wilson-Harrington 0107P 2022 08 24.6633 0.966638 0.631752 95.4417 266.7771 2.7992 20220813 9.0 4.0 107P/Wilson-Harrington
You will note how some of the values are slightly different, this is all it takes to take a poor image of a comet and this is why it is so hard! (Please note: this is not a full element, it is short to show as an example only).
To avoid this we suggest you take the latest orbital elements from the Minor Planet Center directly:
https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft00Cmt.txt
0107P 2022 08 24.6633 0.966639 0.631752 95.4418 266.7770 2.7992 20220814 9.0 4.0 107P/Wilson-Harrington MPEC 2015-M77
Here is an example of a correctly formatted orbital element of Comet 0107P.
You will need to enter the whole line verbatim into our web form:
DO NOT PRESS THE COMET LOOKUP BUTTON. PLEASE PASTE THE ORBITAL ELEMENT INTO THE BOX WITH THE RED ARROW POINTING TO IT.
You are free to name the target name you wish.
After that, you can save the plan and book a reservation or start the plan if the comet if it is visible.