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(meteorobs) Hale/Bopp Obser Mar 9 ZAYGE
March 9, 1997
Had another beautiful night to observe under...sky LM near 6.1... not a cloud
in sight. I had the same pattern from the previous night...started out after
sunset taking a few astrophotos for about an hour and a half. Then an hour
and a half nap...then at 10:30pm I started my meteor plotting for the night
until 3:35...then began setting up to make two exposures of comet
Hale/Bopp...one black and white and the other in color...both with the 4"
SCT. As for meteor activity....well SLOW is definitely a four letter word.
Nothing exciting recorded...just some garden variety type meteors. The
brightest were a couple 0 magnitudes.
I looked at Hale/Bopp thru my 7X50's and 14X100 binoculars as well thru
the10"SCT. With the naked eye, I was able to see about 1.5 degrees of dust
tail and 6 degrees of the ion tail. Thru the 7X50's I could make out about
6.5 degrees of dust tail and 10.5 degrees of ion. I estimated Hale/Bopp's
magnitude after comparing with Vega and taking into consideration of
extinction to be near -0.2. Definitely bright. I don't know if I will make
a run to the observatory tomorrow morning...getting kinda tired. But will for
sure the next day if the sky is clear. If it looks like rain in the forecast
soon...I just may go out.
George Zay
Descanso, Calif.
32 North
116 West