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(meteorobs) Hale/Bopp Obser Feb 14 ZAYGE



Feb 14, 1997

I had the pleasure of observing Hale/Bopp again this morning after a few
hours of meteor plotting. It was very windy all night...but the skies were
clear and dark...Sky Limiting Magnitude of 6.0. I spent most of my comet time
trying to make photographs...To which I made two exposures...A 15 minute
exposure and a 27 minute exposure with my 4"SCT at f/5. Again using T-Max 400
and developed in T-max developer.  I used a telecompressor so it was at f/5.
Afterwards I viewed the comet with my 10" SCT and it looked lovely...very
delicate looking. Anyhow, There is a very active looking jet to the south
still. In my 14X100 binoculars I noticed about a 2.5 degree dust tail. With
my 7X50 binoculars I was able to barely make out about a 7 degree ion tail. I
made a quick estimate of the comets coma and nucleus combined magnitude and
came out with 1.5 or 1.6 ...same as two nights ago.  When I got home I was so
anxious about whether my photographs came out or not... I developed them
right away. I was very much pleased to see two decent negatives...hopefully I
will make a couple prints later this afternoon...after some shut eye that
is...and give the negatives some time to dry. On the negatives, the 27 minute
exposure was the best...stars still pinpoint. The tail quiet
obvious...dot definitely looks a lot better than the one I was pleased with a
couple days ago. On the negative, the 4 degree field shows a tail all the way
across and disappeared at the negatives edge.  At that point it was quiet
thin...but still obvious.
George Zay