[Chaos-l] Comet SWAN

[Jon Stewart-Taylorj]

Hi all.  I did make it to Farrington from 7:30 to 8:15.   The comet was right on the lower edge of the keystone.  The limiting magnitude was about 4.6 or a bit above, lower than the usual 5ish due to the 1st quarter moon.  The Milky Way was easily visible from Cas in the north through the zenith, and down to the split in the neighborhood of Oph.

I could not see either the comet or M13 unaided-eye.  In 10X50s, the comet and M13 fit nicely in the same field of view.  The comet looked a bit under twice the size of M13, and was definitely brighter.  There was no tail i could see, but the comet looked maybe a bit asymetrical.  The color was basicaly white.  In the 10" at around 45x, the comet looked like an unresolved globular, but bigger than even M22.  Again, there was no visible tale, but the hint of asymmetry was stronger.  It also looked a bit blue, but not nearly as strong a shade as the blue planetary nebulae.  Adding more magnification didn't really change the appearance much.

Summary?  A good comet, a bit washed out by the moon, but well worth seeing.  Pity the conditions last night were so yucky.

J.