Following last week's discussion here about visually catching sight of the comet that will run into Deep Impact, I posted to the Minor Planet Mailing List (a group of amateurs and professionals that discover and monitor comets and minor planets). Having read their posts I no longer feel bad about not seeing the comet. Here are a few of their comments: +++ I tried looking for it a week ago in a .7m dob and had the same impression. I hadn't checked the magnitude estimates beforehand and when I got to where it should have been, there was only a tiny barely visible speck. There was no moon that night, but even with the considerable haze what I saw looked no brighter than about a 12th or 13th magnitude galaxy. +++ Current lists of visual estimations show the comet in a range of 10-11 mag, with a coma diameter of 3-4' +++ The brightest pixels in the coma are only about 7% above the background. The coma size at the 7% above background was only about 15 arc seconds. So it is a difficult target at best. +++ So, apparently it's not too hard to take a CCD image of 9P/Temple but actually seeing it using just an eyeball and scope is tough. Of course, there's always that small chance of seeing it after the collision when it may brighten significantly. Patrick
Location, location, location. I saw it at Bryce through my 10" without too much difficulty. Then I got a peek through the Grahn's big scope where it wasn't much better (surprisingly).
So, apparently it's not too hard to take a CCD image of 9P/Temple but actually seeing it using just an eyeball and scope is tough.
Of course, there's always that small chance of seeing it after the collision when it may brighten significantly.
Patrick
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Michael Carnes MichaelCarnes@earthlink.net home.earthlink.net/~MichaelCarnes
I saw it easliy at the Gravel Quarry with my 17.5" near the zenith. Also saw it there in Roger Heden's 10" in the same field of view as NGC4845. For this late in the year, a dark western horizon will be needed. I plan to view from Lakeside if the weather is good. DT Michael Carnes <MichaelCarnes@earthlink.net> wrote:
Location, location, location. I saw it at Bryce through my 10" without too much difficulty. Then I got a peek through the Grahn's big scope where it wasn't much better (surprisingly).
Michael Carnes MichaelCarnes@earthlink.net home.earthlink.net/~MichaelCarnes _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com --------------------------------- Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football
participants (3)
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daniel turner -
Michael Carnes -
Patrick Wiggins