[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Cow patties and dust tails
I met up with a group of hearty local club members out in Petersham, MA last night (2+ hours west of Boston). We set up on a drumlin in the midst of an enchanted meadow off a country road. In a pitch-black southwestern sky (LM=7.0) Hale-Bopp had a 25+ degree dust tail - sweeping past the Double Cluster, which was a fine bright naked-eye fuzz patch in its own right!
I also saw the ion tail naked eye for the first time since mid March. Even in 7x50 binoculars, the ion tail seems clearly split in two about 7 degrees behind the coma! Interesting sight to see THREE tails streaming back from the head. As for weather, temp by midnight was a cozy 12oF... Straw covering the meadow helped to warm our feet, and excitement warmed the rest.
No aurorae were observed, nor "kinks" in the ion tail, despite my best hopes inspired by the great solar flare!
But we hopefully got some great photos, and enjoyed an eyeful of the Comet in a fellow member's 20x80 binoculars and a 5" f/5 I dragged up the hill. After the comet set (leaving behind a disembodied tail visible on the horizon for at least 1/2 hour), we enjoyed some wide-field deep-sky observing - including M13, M3, M81 and M82, and the Gegenschein all caught with the naked eye, and fine spiral structure in M101 with just those redoubtable 20x80s.
PS: Another highlight of the evening - caught a mag 3 sporadic meteor in 7x50s while scanning Auriga. It was a lovely pale fluorescing green-blue in the binocs - first blue I've seen since the Leonids last November! But the most striking thing was the meteor head, which sparked and split into 3 fragments, two green-blue, and one yellowish! Train lasted 1.5 seconds... Stunning!
Clear skies,
Lew