Hi Chuck, it's good to see you're back on the list!! I was able to drag my wife and son out to Horseshoe Springs in Skull Valley Saturday night, and we had an absolutely spectacular view of the comet! I used my 15x70 Bear Bino's and the view was simply amazing, the nucleus sure looked bright tourqouise in color to me sitting as close as it was to that orange star, (anyone know which star that is?) and the tail kept getting longer and brighter, and a light blue by the minute. I first picked it up in the bino's around 7:20pm, and by the time I left around 8:30pm it had filled the entire FOV of the bino's, even my wife was impressed and it actually held the attention of my 3 yr old son for more than 2 seconds. I also had my camera set up on a tripod and I burned through an entire roll on the comet and the nice planetary lineup in no time and I ended up wishing that I had put another roll into the camera bag by the time I left because not only were the planets and comet putting on a great show but I saw the Zodiacal light for the first time and it was incredibly bright!! It extended well above the Pleiades, and next to Saturn, so maybe it'll show up on the wide angle shots I took. (knock on wood) I was so impressed at the views I got from a dark site, I had only seen the comet twice before Saturday, and both times were last week from the light drenched parking lot of my work, once in a small pair of 7x35 bino's, and last Wednesday in the 15x70's. I knew it would look better from the darker site, however I was not prepared for how much better it looked! I wasn't planning on seeing it on the 4th when it nears M-31, however I'm thinking that I just might take off an hour or two to run out west and get some shots of it. I personally have only seen two other naked eye comets, and Hyakutake was only glimpsed through light pollution, but Hale-Bopp is responsible for my interest in astronomy so that ranks as my favorite comet, although I never saw it through any scope or binocular. Ikeya-Zhang I'd rate as number 2 on my (short) all time list, and so far the best one I've seen in any optical instrument, it definitely beats any of the Linear comets! Whew, that was a long post!! Sorry but it was really exciting to be able to see that and share it with my family. Clear Skies Howard --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
BTW, I'd rate this comet as the fourth most-impressive I have ever seen. Number three is Hale-Bopp, number two is Hyakutake, number one is still comet West, which I saw as a high-schooler. In retrospect, I probably frightened my parents enormously, driving up to Little Mountain at three in the morning by myself with a driver's license still warm from the laminating machine! I hope I can see another one day as incredible as West. The textbook "Great Comet". Yes, I missed Ikeya-Seki thanks to "Star Trek" and the technological wonder of "color" TV....
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