I was able to find the comet easily from my backyard (which is heavily light-polluted to the South looking over Orem/Provo) several degrees West of Rigel at 9:25 and again about 11:30 last evening in my 15x70 binoculars. I also detected what seemed to be a hint of a short tail extending West NW. I suspect under dark skies the comet would be an easy naked-eye target if the moon were absent. -Rich --- Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks Joe,

Looks like the next prime viewing time frame for 9:00pm transits of the comet will begin on Jan. 3 through Jan. 13. This corresponds with the comet's predicated maximum brightness on Jan. 6 through Jan. 12. The following is a Moon blocking chart that I prepared for Machholz through February 3, 2005:

Moon and Comet C/2004Q2 (Machholz)

http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Moonto2_...

Some of finder charts referenced in my earlier post were misnamed as C2004Q4, instead of C2004Q2. The following corrects links to the courtesy finder charts for Comet C/2004 Q2(Machholz):

Overview 70 deg finder to 1/10/2005 with Moon phase and transit notes

http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q270degTo1...

25 deg finder with Lep orientation - good through 12/23/2004 Stars to mag 10

http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Lepv10to...

25 deg finder with Eri orientation - good through 12/27/2004 Stars to mag 10

http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/CometC2004Q2Eriv10to...

It looks like I botched my measurement with the reticule eyepiece - which has a 12mm and not 9mm focal length. I redid the measurement at 20041219 8:30UTC and will repost after I redo the math on the angular size. I'm just reworking what I saw on the bright core through the 12mm - 90x lens.

The visual estimate of the 1/2 brightness coma at 10.5 arcmins in the 40mm lens at 28x is good.

For you high-end scope users out there, you really need more than 6" of aperature to see any detail at 90x. The image is too dim with 6" of aperature.

- Kurt

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