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(meteorobs) ARCHIVE RESEND: Hale/Bopp/Meteor Obser Mar 7 ZAYGE




March 7, 1997

Observing from my work location on Mt. Helix, I had clear skies, but the
comet was being washed in very heavy light pollution over the city of El
Cajon. The sky had an LM at best near 3.5. Anyway, I can still see a 1/2
degree tail with the naked eye. Thru the 14X100 binoculars, I can make out a
3 degree long tail...rather surprising when you consider the light pollution.
I estimate the comet's magnitude still at +0.1 compared to Vega. I had to
make allowances for Vega being in a much darker part of the sky and
extinction for the comet along the horizon. Tomorrow I will be at my
observatory and will have better skies to judge under. The nucleus is still
stellar and no signs of splitting. The Southerly Jet still appears to be in
the same position. Somebody asked about that...but I can't tell any change.

Last night I developed the Black and White exposure that I made yesterday
morning of Hale/Bopp. The comet has noticeably changed from my last
photographic effort of Mar 2. The dust tail on the south side looks the same,
but on the North side there appears to be a rather pronounced distortion not
too far back from the coma. It looks like a big sudden change in direction
towards the south. There also seems to be a dust tail showing up on the
northside as well. In addition I see short filaments sprouting up from the
coma and pointing in a northerly direction in reference to the ion tail. When
I examined my negative last night, I was pleased to notice that I also
captured a meteor. Both comet and meteor are nicely framed. For my 200 mm
lens, the negatives longest dimension is about 7 degrees. Based on this, the
meteor appears to be about 1.5 degrees long. If I was using my 28mm f/2.8
lens like I usually do while meteor photographing, I'd estiamte the meteor's
magnitude at about   -3 to -5. But what the meteor's actual magnitude was I
don't know. I did not see the meteor. My eyes were glued to the guiding
eyepiece the whole time. The background stars appear nearly pin point. This
morning I made a precursory check and concluded that the meteor was a
sporadic.
George Zay
La Mesa, Calif.
32 North
116 West