[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Hale/Bopp Obser Mar 8 ZAYGE
March 8, 1997
Last night was an all night observing nite for me. I started out with
photographing the horsehead nebula and Orion Nebula with my 200mm.
Afterwards, I took a couple hour nap and started meteor observing...nothing
exciting to note. Then around 4 am I was prepared to make two more exposures
of Hale/Bopp comet. One exposure with the 200mm and the other was with the
135mm. Tomorrow morning I will have a similar schedule...except I will be
photographing with the 4"SCT...I hope the weather holds..dot it's been great.
At my Descanso observing site under 6.1 skies, I was able to see Hale/Bopp's
tail with the naked eye pretty good. The dust tail measured 1.5 degrees and
the ion tail seemed to go on for about 9 degrees. Thru my 7X50 binoculars,
the dust tail appeared up to 5.5 degrees and the ion tail still measured out
at 9 degrees. I estimated the comet's magnitude to be at -0.1 compared to
Vega and taking extinction into consideration.
George Zay
Descanso, Calif.
32 North
116 West