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(meteorobs) Hale/Bopp Observation Jan 19




This morning I was able to observe comet Hale/Bopp after a couple hours of
meteor observing. This time I was at my observing site and had darker skies
and a tripod to steady my 14X100 binoculars. I didn't have this yesterday
morning. Anyhow, under clear and a Sky Limiting Magnitude  near 6.0, this is
what I recorded. Tail length about 1 degree. Magnitude between 2.6 and 2.8.
Tail pointing towards the Northwest. No anti-tail. No "unexplained
companions". No apparent splitting of the nucleus. Tail definitely not as
broad as it was in early December. 

Yesterday I reported a tail length of 1.5 degrees and a magnitude around 3.0
and perhaps 2.9.  I don't think what I saw yesterday was much different than
this mornings observation. I had some difficulties observing
yesterday...namely no tripod to steady my heavy binoculars. I'm fairly
confident that I would have reported the tail length to be 1 degree long if
the view was more steadier....I don't think it has noticeably changed.  As
for magnitude....I could have settled on 2.8 thru 3.0.   I think it genuinely
appears brighter to me this morning than yesterday...but ?

Now for my sob story.  I had all intentions to photograph the comet this
morning. I set my camera up on it's guided platform and everything. Around 2
am I noticed that the comet's Declination lined up with a pesky juniper tree
that my father in law won't let me trim. So...I moved my camera platform to
another mount that I have out in the field for just this kind of problem.
Well, The comet didn't clear a small mountain peak  until about 5h20m. Then
at the secondary camera mount, it just barely lined up with another  tree
that I never had a problem with. By the time it cleared for my camera,
twilight was appearing. Without the tree, I would have had only about 10
minutes to make any exposures. Hale/Bopp appeared at the worst spot for my
observing site. I guess I will have to wait for it to move to another
location to get it's photograph?
George Zay