I was inspired by your C-5 assertion and tried my luck with the 6” ETX-LS. I put the scope in high-precision pointing mode and got good finder center results down to a 9.7mm lens. I took the RA and Dec values from Sky Safari on my iPod, input the values into the scope and gave it the “goto”. It centered Regulus in the 9.7mm lens for the high-precision point, then went to the input coordinates. Couldn’t see a thing but a few dim stars and a lot of empty space. No comet. I couldn’t even make one up. Bummer. I think Moon is just too bright for my old eyes to make anything out. That’s the excuse I’m going with. I know your eyesight is much keener than mine and you know, exactly, where the comet is and what you’re looking for. All I can hope for is that the skies are as clear as they are, now, when it gets closer to new moon. Don’t bet on it, though. Here’s to being hopeful. Thanks for the exposure settings. Those values should work equally well with the 10” scope as starter values whenever I get time to use the SBIG camera on this comet. As an aside, the mornings sure are nice down here. Dave On Oct 19, 2013, at 8:16 PM, Wiggins Patrick <paw@getbeehive.net> wrote:

It's a stacked image of 4 15" exposures.

Unfortunate that the Moon and haze conspired against me but it's nice to see that there's something there to work with once the Moon and haze go away.

I also tried to spot it visually. Using a C-5 I *think* there was something there but I can't say for sure.

Looking forward to moonless skies,

patrick

On 19 Oct 2013, at 07:20, Dave Gary wrote:

...

What was the exposure time on that shot? I tried to see ISON, visually, this morning. No go. Moon is too bright. I was too lazy to hook up the SBIG camera. Nice shot, by the way. ISON does have a nice tail.

Dave On Oct 19, 2013, at 6:28 AM, Wiggins Patrick <paw@getbeehive.net> wrote:

...

I was finally able to image ISON this morning. But between my roof and the neighbor's tree I could only get partial aperture. Glaring Moon and haze did not help, really washing it out.

But what I did get shows it is sporting a nice tail. Certainly better than most comets.

http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/ison2013oct19.JPG

FOV is 18 x 26 arc minutes.

patrick

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I couldn’t see it in the 10” scope, yesterday. The scope I was using this morning was a 6”. I may have been up a little too late for the seeing to be optimum this morning ~0500. Either way, I couldn’t see ISON. I’m sure I was looking in the correct location this morning (assuming Sky Safari is in the ballpark in its assessment of RA and Dec for the comet), but I could not see it in the 6” scope with a 9.7mm lens. Going to the 6.4mm lens (with Moon as bright as it is) everything was really washed out. I went back to the 9.7mm lens and searched for some time. I could not see it. However, my eyes aren’t what they used to be, I guess. They’ve always been pretty poor in terms of non-corrected visual acuity. My prehistoric ancestors must have smelled that cave bear coming. My hearing has gone to hell, too. I think I’ll wait until the morning sky is a little darker. Maybe next weekend, if the weather cooperates, I’ll give it another “goto”. Dave On Oct 20, 2013, at 8:39 AM, Dion Davidson <diondavidson@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dave I was able to see it visually before the full moon from my driveway in Sandy with my 10" SCT. It was faint, but definitely there. That's how I was able to get an image of it - I found it visually first. I tried all kinds of combinations of eypieces and angles - I moved the scope to a different part of the sky and back again, just to see if I was imagining it or I could reproduce it.

Dion

On Sunday, October 20, 2013 7:07 AM, Dave Gary <davegary@me.com> wrote:

I was inspired by your C-5 assertion and tried my luck with the 6” ETX-LS. I put the scope in high-precision pointing mode and got good finder center results down to a 9.7mm lens. I took the RA and Dec values from Sky Safari on my iPod, input the values into the scope and gave it the “goto”. It centered Regulus in the 9.7mm lens for the high-precision point, then went to the input coordinates. Couldn’t see a thing but a few dim stars and a lot of empty space. No comet. I couldn’t even make one up. Bummer. I think Moon is just too bright for my old eyes to make anything out. That’s the excuse I’m going with. I know your eyesight is much keener than mine and you know, exactly, where the comet is and what you’re looking for. All I can hope for is that the skies are as clear as they are, now, when it gets closer to new moon. Don’t bet on it, though. Here’s to being hopeful.

Thanks for the exposure settings. Those values should work equally well with the 10” scope as starter values whenever I get time to use the SBIG camera on this comet. As an aside, the mornings sure are nice down here.

Dave On Oct 19, 2013, at 8:16 PM, Wiggins Patrick <paw@getbeehive.net> wrote:

...

It's a stacked image of 4 15" exposures.

Unfortunate that the Moon and haze conspired against me but it's nice to see that there's something there to work with once the Moon and haze go away.

I also tried to spot it visually. Using a C-5 I *think* there was something there but I can't say for sure.

Looking forward to moonless skies,

patrick

On 19 Oct 2013, at 07:20, Dave Gary wrote:

...

What was the exposure time on that shot? I tried to see ISON, visually, this morning. No go. Moon is too bright. I was too lazy to hook up the SBIG camera. Nice shot, by the way. ISON does have a nice tail.

Dave On Oct 19, 2013, at 6:28 AM, Wiggins Patrick <paw@getbeehive.net> wrote:

...

I was finally able to image ISON this morning. But between my roof and the neighbor's tree I could only get partial aperture. Glaring Moon and haze did not help, really washing it out.

But what I did get shows it is sporting a nice tail. Certainly better than most comets.

http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/ison2013oct19.JPG

FOV is 18 x 26 arc minutes.

patrick

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