I took at look at it last night and the night before in 10X50 binos. It looked much better last night. On Monday night, I was barely able to identify it as a comet. Last night it had moved higher in the sky and seemed larger. There are several stars near it. Only the brightest one was visible from my front yard. I would think that several of the stars would be visible if I didn't have two street lights and a bunch of porch lights to look at while observing to the north. As I think even more about it, on Monday, the comet was closer to the street light as well. That would have increased the stray light I was getting. I used a telescope last night as well. This was real nice. I think I just started to see a little bit a tail in my 10" f/5 Dob. If it is nice this weekend, I may have to go up the canyon and see what it looks like from a dark sky. Dave -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com@mailman.xmissio n.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:37 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Not-So-Odd Object Great report, Wayne, thanks. (I assume you mean comet Swan?) I was planning on taking a peek after Kurt's posting as well, until my mom called with a deceased water heater. I spent the evening shopping for, and installing her new one. Finished at 10:30 and after my 3 mile run and a cold supper, showered and collapsed into bed for 4 hours of sleep. Of course tonight the weather isn't cooperating. :o( Did you do any brightness estimates by comparing it with stars of known magnitude? The trick is to rack the star out-of-focus until it subtends about the same diameter in the eyepiece(s) as the comet. Makes brightness comparisons a lot easier. --- Wayne Sumner <wsumner@dsdmail.net> wrote:
I had a wonderful view of Comet Dawn last evening around 7:30. It was big and bright in the 25x100 binoculars I bought from Patrick a few weeks ago. The binoculars made it easy to sweep up the comet even just knowing the general location of the comet above Corona Borealis and right of Hercules. There was no sign of a tail in my light polluted skies, but the small, bright nucleus was surrounded by a large coma. A great view. Thanks for the heads up. Wayne Sumner
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