Espace L60

Astronomy with a 60 mm refractor

The comets

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

If binoculars are the most usual instruments to locate them, small refractors are able to reveal structure on certain comets. According to the table belownote 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

Comet Instrument Date Mag Observer Place Web Image Description
2013
C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) ON 14/03 1,0 T. Karhula Sweden
C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) 50x7B 31/10 7,2 U. Pilz
2P/Encke 50x7B 30/10 8,3 Biver
2011
C/2009 P1 (Garradd) 50x20B 20/08 7,3 Diepvens Belgium JR.Gilis
2010
C/2009 R1 (McNaught) 50x10B 25/06 5,2 Lehky Czech Republic
2009
C/2006 W3 (Christensen) 50x20B 25/07 8,3 Diepvens Belgium
C/2007 N3 (Lulin) 50x10B 04/02 6,4 Hasubick Germany
2008
C/2007 W1 (Boattini) 50x10B 05/08 7 M. Meyer Germany
46P/Wirtanen 50x10B 29/01 8,4 J.J.Gonzalez Spain (43°N)
2007
8P/Tuttle 7,5
17P/Holmes ON 24/07 2,5 Biver France JR.Gilis
C/2007 F1 (LONEOS) 50x20B 20/10 5,8 A. Diepvens Belgium
C/2006 VZ13 50x10B 08/07 8 Biver France JR.Gilis
C/2007 E2 (Lovejoy) 63x9B 17/04 7,8 Kamerer Germany
C/2006 P1 (Mc Naught) ON 13/01 -4 France
2006
C/2006 M4 (SWAN) 50x7B 22/09 7 Diepvens Belgium
177P/2006 M3 (Barnard) 50x7B 28/08 8,3 Gonzalez Spain
C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) 50x7B 27/02 5 Biver SAF
73P (SW)
2005
C/2003 T4 50x7B 13/03 7,9 Biver SAF
C/2005 K2 50x7B 11/06 9,2 Biver SAF
2004
C/2001 Q2 (Maccholz) ON 31/12 4,1 Ferrero SAF JR.Gilis
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) ON 12/05 3,3 Biver SAF JR.Gilis
C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) 50x7B 4,8 Scarmato
C/2003 K4 (LINEAR) 50x7B 13/07 6,9 Biver SAF JR.Gilis
C/2004 F4 (Bradfield) 50x7B 23/04 3,3 Biver SAF
2003
2P/Encke 50x10B 19/11 7,2 C.S. Morris Canada Tsukasa Noda
C/2002 Y1 (Juels-Holvorcem) 50x7B 31/03 6,5 Biver SAF
2002
C/2002 V1 (NEAT) 50x7B 30/12 8,2 Biver SAF
C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa) 50x7B 29/12 6,7 Kugel SAF Tsukasa Noda
C/2002 O6 (SWAN) 50B 15/08 6,4 Hasubick Germany DE JR.Gilis
C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) 50B 15/08 7,9 Hasubick Germany DE JR.Gilis
C/2002 F1 (Utsunomya) 50x10B 11/04 5,6 J.Bortle NY,U.S.A. DE JR.Gilis
C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) ON 23/03 3,5 Biver Netherlands SAF JR.Gilis
2001
C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) 50x7B 09/12 6,3 J.Serant France JR.Gilis
C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) 50x10B 01/08 7,4 N.Biver Netherlands JR.Gilis
2000
C/2000 W1 Utsunomiya-Jones 50x10B 07/12 6,5 A.Amorim Brasil
C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley) 50x7B 31/12 7,7 N.Biver France FR
C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) 50x10B 23/07 6,4 N.Biver France FR JR.Gilis
1999
C/1999 N2 (Lynn) 50x10B 13/07 8 D.W. Lynn FR
C/1999 J3 (LINEAR) 50x7B 13/10 7,1 J. Kyselý Tchécoslovaquia
C/1999 H1 (Lee) 50x7B 07/10 8,7 J. Kyselý Tchécoslovaquia
1998
55P/Tempel-Tuttle 50B 25/01 7,7 Hasubick Germany
21P/Giacobini-Zinner 63B 21/08 8,2 Kammerer Germany
C/1998 U5 (LINEAR) 63B 18/11 8,6 Kammerer Germany
C/1998 J1 (SOHO) ON ? Germany O.Farago Remarque
1997
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) ON 28/03 -1,3 Hasubick Germany DE L.Ferrero
C/1997 K2 ? ?
1996
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) 50B 11/06 6,1 Kriebel Germany DE
C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) ON 25/03 -0,6 M.Meyer Germany DE
C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) 50x8B 27/09 5,8 Richert Germany DE
22P/Kopff 50B 07/07 8,3 Lüthen Germany DE
C/1996 N1 (Brewington) 60B 16/07 8,9 Lüthen Germany DE
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Padjusakova 63B 31/01 7,2 Kammerer Germany DE
1995
122P/de Vico 50x10B 19/09 6,4 J.E. Bortle USA CZ Tsukasa Noda
6P/d'Arrest 50x10B 29/08 6,8 J.E. Bortle USA UK
1994
Impacts Jupiter/SL9 50R 16/07
C/1995 Q1 Bradfield 50B 29/09 7,5 Guthier Germany?North DE
19P/Borelly 63B 06/12 7,9 Kammerer Germany DE
2P/Encke 50x10B 07/01 8,5 A. Vincent UK UK
1993
Schaumasse 50B 17/02 8,5 Möller Germany DE
McNaught-Russell 50B 26/03 6,9 Möller Germany DE
1992
109/P Swift-Tuttle 50B 20/10 6,5 Lüthen Germany DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1992 F1 Tanaka-Machholz 20x7B ? 11/05 6,7 T.Tanti UK
1991
4P/Faye 60R 14/10 8,5 Jahn Germany DE
103P/Hartley 2 50x8B 21/10 8,9 S.Beaumont UK UK
1990
C/1989 X1 Austin ON 18/05 4,9 van Loo DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1990 K1 Levy ON 16/08 4,4 Monz DE Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1990 N1 Tsuchiya-Kiuchi 50R 23/10 7,2 Jahn Germany DE
45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova 50x10B 01/02 7,1 J. E. Bortle USA
C/1990 E1 Cernis-Kiuchi-Nakamura 50x10B 17/03 8,1 A. Hale
1989
23/P Brorsen-Metcalf 50B 30/08 5,2 Möller Germany DE JR.Gilis JR.Gilis
C/1989 Q1 Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko ON 09/11 5,5 Jäger DE (IT) Tsukasa Noda JR.Gilis
C/1989 W1 Aarseth-Brewington 50x7B 18/12 4,2 Yugoslavia (DE) Tsukasa Noda
1988
C/1988 A1 Liller ON 22/04 5,4 Bh.Koch DE JR.Gilis JR.Gilis
C/1988 J Machholz 63x9B 03/09 7,4 R. H. McNaught Australia (France?) JR.Gilis
1987
19P/Borelly 50B 20/12 7,5 Bh.Koch DE
Bradfield ON 15/12 5 Jäger DE Tsukasa Noda
Encke 50x7B 21/07 7,1 GW.Wolf New Zealand US
1986
P/Halley ON 06/12 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 ).

Comets observing reports of "Société astronomique de France" .

Julien Leroux website, comets "hunting".

Other websites

German comet observations archives. Archives since 1984 (DE in the table) are available in ICQ format .

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 !