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(meteorobs) Jan 31 Hale/Bopp Observation ZAYGE
Jan 31 Hale/Bopp Observation.
This morning from my La Mesa workplace under 5.1 Sky Limiting Magnitudes, I
was for the first time able to notice comet Hale/Bopp's apparent fuzziness
with the naked eye. Thru my 14X100 binoculars, the tail appeared to be about
1.1 degrees long. also there was a slight hint that under darker skies the
tail might extend to a total length of 1.5 - 2 degrees. As for it's
magnitude, it appears brighter this morning. Still using zeta aquilae as a
reference star, I estimated the comet's magnitude to range from 2.3 to 2.5. I
did not see any coma elongation or splitting.
Does anyone know what magnitude Gamma Aquilae is? I don't have a star catalog
handy and I don't want to go by the diameter of the star circles that's on my
star chart. I definitely see Hale/Bopp to be a little brighter than Gamma
Aquilae, but I'm not sure about Gamma's magnitude to make a more numerical
judgement. I'd appreciate the help.
George Zay