[Chaos-l] Machholz observing

[Stewart-Taylor, Jon]

Hi all. One or more of the Prestings said:

> 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 parked in the first turn to the left.  I assumed that the comet would
be high enough to clear the trees (obviously it was), and that location
is usually less active and shielded a bit from the lights of the boating
traffic.  Although where you were gives better access to the sky, lights
from the boats and cars get kind of annoying some nights. We actually
walked over there a little after 6:30, but didn't see anything which
looked like astronomy activity.  Were you down towards the lake?  Given
the clouds lurking to the west i didn't want to waste time, so we didn't
go all the way down.

> [...] we all saw the comet unaided. 

Any visual impressions?

> In the 26mm eyepiece we saw just the same asymmetric smudge. 

What's the magnification and field of view with that eyepiece?

> With the Barlow we could see enough of the tail [...]

Guess i should have thrown some more magnification at it.  Our 10" with
26mm plossl gives a 1 deg field of view, but only about 45x.  Let that
be a lesson to us all: observe everything at different magnifications,
because you never know what will give the best view or when a detail
will pop out.

> If there are any more clear nights this week, we'll be out again [...]

The Wunderground forecast doesn't look too hopeful, with cloud covers in
the 50% range until it rains on Monday:

   http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=RDU

But, if it's just clouds rather than haze, you may be able to catch it
through the sucker holes.  It's definitely worth a try, even from
suburban locations.

> [we looked at] The Andromeda galaxy [and our friend]
>  could recognize the disk shape and see it tilted.

Did you show him the 2 satellite galaxies?  In the 10", all three just
fit in a single field of view.  H/chi Perseus were also very pretty,
both in binoculars and the scope.  M42 was a bit low, but still very
nice.

All in all, a very nice mid-week quick observing session.

Thanks for your report.

J.