[Chaos-l] Machholz observing

[Kyle Presting]

We must have just missed you - which section of the parking lot were you
using?  We were at the section furthest from the bridge.  We arrived
while there was still a little light, and stayed (I thought) till almost
7pm.

We are newbies, but I was able to load the orbit info into our 8" LX-90
and it found the comet easily.  Once we realized where the scope was
pointing, we all saw the comet unaided.  In the 26mm eyepiece we saw
just the same asymmetric smudge.  With the Barlow we could see enough of
the tail to notice it was extended and agree on a direction.

The Andromeda galaxy was almost directly overhead at the time, and it
was beautiful.  We had a friend with us who had never seen either a
comet or a galaxy, and even he could recognize the disk shape and see it
tilted.

We live on the south end of Cary, and the boat ramp site is perfect for
us - hardly fifteen minutes away, good clearance from trees, and much
darker than the yard.  If there are any more clear nights this week,
we'll be out again, especially since it's so warm.

Ken, Kurt & Kyle Presting

> -----Original Message-----
> From: chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org]
On Behalf
> Of Stewart-Taylor, Jon
> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 10:00 AM
> To: chaos-l at rtpnet.org
> Subject: [Chaos-l] Machholz observing
> 
> Hi all.  We were at Farrington from 6:30 to 7:30 last night (12/29).
> The comet was detectable unaided using averted vision, but I couldn't
> see any real detail: just a fuzzy patch about the size and brightness
of
> M42.  In 10x50 binoculars and an 8x50 finder it was a large fuzzy
patch,
> with a bright core and barely detectable asymmetry. In the 10" dob it
> looked a bit like an unresolved globular cluster, again with a hint of
> asymmetry.
> 
> Not a great comet, but much better than average.  I'm really looking
> forward to early January when it goes past the Pleiades.  I predict a
> lot of really good photos from that one.
> 
> J.
> 
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