--- Howard Jackman <sumoetx@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Chuck, it's good to see you're back on the list!!
Thanks, Howard. Good to be back. Anything good get posted while I was away?
I used my 15x70 Bear Bino's and the view was simply amazing, the nucleus sure looked bright tourqouise
I love those Bears. Glad I kept one pair, it is now my favorite binocular.
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 havnen't had my astrophotography mount up and running since Hale-Bopp, I'm going to get it all assembled and test-run this week. I've never tried the auto-guider on a comet, will probably use the guidescope again this time. Luckily, two or three minuite exposures will probably reach the sky-fog limit for this one.
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,
You should have seen comet West. The image is still burned into my mind. The tail started rising at about 3:30 in the morning, and the nucleus wasn't up until an hour and a half later. The thing covered 1/4 of the sky, and was BRIGHT! I hope we get another like sometime soon! C. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Greetings - send holiday greetings for Easter, Passover http://greetings.yahoo.com/