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(meteorobs) The Sky!! The Sky!!
FINALLY had a clear night last night (actually this morning).
Not being of hardy Canadian stock, and with a temp of -8C, I knew my time
would be limited, and I wanted to be sure to see Hale Bopp, so I arose at
2AM to head out.
Meteor observations commenced at 0800 UT, and I lasted about 1.7 hours
before my curiosity about the comet could be contained no longer. Captured
8 meteors...one or 2 Virginids (Feb Leonids).
2 real nice sporadics...a Yellow 0 mag with 3 second train with a radiant
below the horizon below Corvus, and another slow +1 Mag that covered over
40 degrees of the sky..again a radiant below the horizon. Made up for the
slow rate.
At 0950, switched to comet mode. A Mr. Know-it-all at the site said it
was as bright as Altair....right!
My naked eye estimate was very near 2.0 (I'm still getting a feel for
making these judgements), with a broad faint tail streaming upward. It was
definitly dimmer than Altair, brighter than gamma Aquila, located just past
eta-Sagitta....I was hoping to see the little arrow pointing to it and it
finally cleared up on the right day!
Through my 10 X 50 Binocs, the large pseudonucleus was clearly visible,
, non-stellar, the broad faint tail streaming upward about 2.5 degrees.
Through my 8" Dob at lowest power, there was a bright fan shape on the
sunward side, with the
edge of the pseudonucleus not detectable in that direction. This was on one
side of the diffuse tail, decidedly not symmetrical. Through the scope the
area between the tail edges was darker. The tail was noticably blue as
well.
Also looked at higher power, but really couldn't get any additional
detail. All in all a very pretty sight! Still 8 weeks to go!!
Yahoo,
Wayne, slowly thawing