Re: [Utah-astronomy] Not-So-Odd Object
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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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
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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Apparently the weather is better in Flagstaff. I just received this on the Minor Planet Mailing List: ++++++++++ Just happened to have another look at it still during twilight here from Mars Hill. Spotted naked-eye as being a few tenths brighter than nearby tau CrB, so still around mag 4.5. Nice strongly condensed coma. Dave Schleicher is just starting tonight with photometry using narrow-band comet filters, so some gas/dust ratio and production rates should be forthcoming in a day or two. ++++++++++ Chuck Hards wrote:
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.
--- Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote: <snip all> Swan outburst is reported to be subsiding: Pete Lawrence: "Comet Swan appears to have faded slightly from its outburst on the 24th. Tonight I estimated the head to be magnitude +5.4, still just visible to the naked eye . . ." http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_cometswan.html - Kurt __________________________________________________________________________________________ Check out the New Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta)
Hi Friends, I just uploaded some photos from a session early Tuesday morning at the Wedge Overlook. They are of NGC 253, the huge galaxy in Sculptor, and the Flame Nebula in the Orion vicinity. I've admired 253 for a very long time. But because it's so far south it's only visible from our region around this time of year, and I never got a view of it before. The black and white photo is a bit of a panorama with two photos, but the galaxy got too low or went behind clouds or something before I could get views of the left-most part of the galaxy. When I was taking one of a number of color exposures a meteor seems to have flashed past, during the red exposure, and that left a bright red streak. I have uploaded that too, though I wasn't intending to show individual color exposurs -- the other view is a stack. Also I uploaded an image of part of the Flame Nebula. To compare its size, look on page 71 of the latest Astronomy Magazine, lower picture, where you can see the Flame above the Horsehead. My views are posted on our Utah Astronomy Gallery at: http://www.utahastronomy.com/view_album.php?page=5 The night got intensely cold, and for one of the few times during a photo expedition, I quit before dawn and tried to warm up. Best wishes, Joe
Nice work Joe! --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Hi Friends, I just uploaded some photos from a session early Tuesday morning at the Wedge Overlook. They are of NGC 253, the huge galaxy in Sculptor, and the Flame Nebula in the Orion vicinity. I've admired 253 for a very long time. But because it's so far south it's only visible from our region around this time of year, and I never got a view of it before. The black and white photo is a bit of a panorama with two photos, but the galaxy got too low or went behind clouds or something before I could get views of the left-most part of the galaxy. When I was taking one of a number of color exposures a meteor seems to have flashed past, during the red exposure, and that left a bright red streak. I have uploaded that too, though I wasn't intending to show individual color exposurs -- the other view is a stack. Also I uploaded an image of part of the Flame Nebula. To compare its size, look on page 71 of the latest Astronomy Magazine, lower picture, where you can see the Flame above the Horsehead.
My views are posted on our Utah Astronomy Gallery at:
http://www.utahastronomy.com/view_album.php?page=5
The night got intensely cold, and for one of the few times during a photo expedition, I quit before dawn and tried to warm up.
Best wishes, Joe
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Many thanks, Rich. I am still learing the business of taking and processing astrophotos, but I like to think I'm making some progress. Best wishes, Joe
Kudos Joe! I especially liked the bright red meteor crossing NGC 253. It must have been a really hot meteor. :) Stars are looking pretty round so you must have had your polar alignment and tracking down pat. But that you'd go all the way to the Wedge on these cold nights, well that's just plain impressive in itself. Carpe Noctem! pw Joe Bauman wrote:
Hi Friends, I just uploaded some photos from a session early Tuesday morning at the Wedge Overlook. They are of NGC 253, the huge galaxy in Sculptor, and the Flame Nebula in the Orion vicinity. I've admired 253 for a very long time. But because it's so far south it's only visible from our region around this time of year, and I never got a view of it before. The black and white photo is a bit of a panorama with two photos, but the galaxy got too low or went behind clouds or something before I could get views of the left-most part of the galaxy. When I was taking one of a number of color exposures a meteor seems to have flashed past, during the red exposure, and that left a bright red streak. I have uploaded that too, though I wasn't intending to show individual color exposurs -- the other view is a stack. Also I uploaded an image of part of the Flame Nebula. To compare its size, look on page 71 of the latest Astronomy Magazine, lower picture, where you can see the Flame above the Horsehead.
My views are posted on our Utah Astronomy Gallery at:
http://www.utahastronomy.com/view_album.php?page=5
The night got intensely cold, and for one of the few times during a photo expedition, I quit before dawn and tried to warm up.
Best wishes, Joe
participants (6)
-
Canopus56 -
Chuck Hards -
Joe Bauman -
Patrick Wiggins -
Richard Tenney -
Wayne Sumner