[Chaos-l] Comet McNaught

[Terry Crook]

Steve Meisner & I observed it Wed PM from 
Ebenezer State Park at 5:30-6:00 with binoculars 
as well as my 80mm Celestron refractor. It was 
about 10° above the tree line horizon at first, 
roughly 20° to the right of Venus & much lower. 
The head was quite bright, maybe magnitude 2 (?) 
& the tail was fan-shaped aimed toward 2 o'clock. 
By 5:55, it was getting down into the atmospheric 
haze & reddish twilight glow, so the head became 
less distinct. Anyone going to Ebenezer SP should 
be aware that the ranger closes the entry gate at 
about 6 (~1/2 hr past sunset?). He did check to 
see if anyone was out there about 10 minutes 
before & thoughtfully gave me time to load my 
'scope, etc. back into my car shortly after 6. I 
did encourage him to stop & take a look first 
which probably bought us some extra time! I 
suppose one could park on the roadside on one of 
the causeways crossing the lake below Farrington 
Point but that's likely frowned upon by the 
authorities! It will be visible at this time for 
a couple more days & then gone for us locally.


TaurusTerry in Chapel Hill, NC
35° 57' N  79° 02' W

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