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(meteorobs) Bopp/hale/Meteor/ Obser Mar 11 ZAYGE
March 10/11, 1997
Just completed another full night at the observatory...Started the evening
making a few test photos for a project I'm working on and ended a 42 minute
color exposure on the Rosette Nebula. Afterwards I re-rigged the observatory
for meteor observing...took a 2 hour nap and then began my meteor plotting at
23h30 local. Activity seemed about the same as the other two nights this
week...snail crawling slow. I did see a -2 that might have been captured on
film...I will be checking on that this morning after I develop my film. At
about 03:45 am stopped my meteor work and reset the observatory back up so
that I can make a photo of comet Bopp/hale...probably my last for awhile. I
made this exposure for 32 minutes with my 200 mm f/3.5...a little longer than
normal...something different. While I was making that exposure, I left my
other camera running on the camera platform mount. It was the tail end of a
roll of color film I've been using these last 3 weeks...very curious to see
how they turn out. Since I wasn't guiding it manually, I used my 28mm f/2.8
lens. Should take care of any lack of guidance problems...I had a good polar
alignment. I wasn't too serious about that exposure..dot it was either take it
out of curiosity...or nothing at all on that frame since I'm turning it in
for processing today.
Details about Hale/Bopp hasn't changed a whole heck of a lot from yesterday.
Naked eye I was able to make out 1.5 degree dust tail...8 deg ion tail. With
the 7X50's, I could see 6 deg dust tail and 10.5 deg ion. Thru the 10"SCT, I
was able to make out two concentric waves of material around the nucleus. For
some reason the view thru the 14X100's looked very spectacular...more so than
any other morning...I haven't picked up on what's different from yesterday
morning yet? But it had the best view of all the equipment I've been using.
I estimated the comet's magnitude to be at about
-0.3.
As I was leaving the observing site, I didn't have any problems with that
tire eating Ram like I did the previous morning. By the way...his name is
Rambo. Oh! I got one little anecdote to relate about yesterdays encounter
with Rambo. After some shoving and trying to get him away from the tires, he
started chasing me around my truck. I went around 3 times. On the 4th time, I
hopped into the cab. Rambo didn't see me...but the stupid critter kept going
around the truck an additional 4 times as if he was still in pursuit. Finally
he got tired and couldn't figure where I went and left. He never formulated
the concept to look inside the truck. I then hurriedly opened the gate and
left.
George Zay
Descanso, Calif.
32 deg north
116 deg West