Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Day 1: 24th August 2014.
Just a few days ago the interesting comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) began to rise above the South Eastern horizon at a convenient hour of the evening. Unfortunately, this appearance in the mid-evening sky occurred in a direction which requires an elevation of about twenty-five degrees before it rises over my neighbour's garage, so I had to wait longer than I hoped - but the emergence of this comet also coincided with an extended period of several days of heavy cloud and rain, so I had waited several days too.
I took the opportunity on 24th August to have a look. Seemingly mostly clear, I got out the Vixen Polarie, tripod and camera but by the time I had setup, aligned and focused the clouds were back!
The following image was the best image of a bad bunch but I think I may possibly have nailed it. The image shows the comet circled in grey (centre):
Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Canon 60D, 35mm, 30 sec., f/1.8, ISO 2500, Polarie/tripod. (c) R.P.
Enlarged:
Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) cropped and enlarged. (c) R.P.
At a forecast magnitide of +8.1 in a group of 7th magnitude stars, it looks right - but I cannot conclusively say this is C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) based on this image. However it matches exactly the location shown on my Sky Safari app.
The bright star far left is Achernar (Alpha Eridani) and the one lower left of centre is Alpha Hydri. To the very far right right is Delta Hydri.
I didn't expect a tail in my wide angle shot but as soon as I get a clear sky I will try again with a more powerful lens. However, the weather is threatening continuing rain as Comet C/2013 A1 zooms past the Small Magellanic Cloud over the next few days.
This comet is predicted to peak at magnitude 7.7 next month before it has a near miss experience with Mars in October.