[Chaos-l] Machholz developing...

[Stewart-Taylor, Jon]

Hi all.  Sunday night was the first clear night in a week down in Daytona Beach FL (visiting in-laws). Despite the full moon, Machholz was easy to find in 10x50 binoculars.  It seems to have brightened since the last time i found it about a week ago.  It appeared to be slightly brighter than the near-by M42 (Orion Nebula), and about twice the apparent size.  No tail visible from the somewhat light-polluted and distinctly moon-washed location.

According to the Weather Underground, Wednesday night looks to be clear, and the moon won't be rising until 8:00.  Would there be any interest in a comet observing session at one of the local sites?  If nothing else, i'm thinking about going down to the Farrington Point boat ramp.

Noted from Gary Kronk's page (http://cometography.com/lcomets/2004Q2.html):

> While the comet is a naked-eye object, it will pass close 
> to two naked-eye clusters. On January 7, the comet passes 
> less than 3° from the Pleiades, while on the night of January 
> 27/28 it will pass about 5° from the Double Cluster in Perseus.

J.
-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor
Manager, Network Applications Programming
jstewart at misg.com, 919-406-8824