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(meteorobs) Tempel-Tuttle!!
Hello everybody,
Perseverance pays. After two unfruitfull attempts on Wednesday and
thursday, I finally succeeded in finding comet 55P/ Tempel-Tuttle, the
Leonid parent comet, last saturday evening.
I first located it in the B20x80, then also in my 4.5" Newton at 36x. A
large, very difuse object with a very low surface brightness. As a
comparison: M1, the Crab nebula, is both smaller and easier to see than
the comet. The comet is about 10' diameter and very very difuse: DC about
0-1, not more. A ghostly nebulous patch.
I also tried the B7x50. The comet was visible in that instrumen, but very
very difficult: only when you exactly knew where to look, and then it
still was more like gueswork, and glimpses. I think that 70mm is a
minimum to view it a little bit comfortably.
I did not try an estimate: the visiblity of the comet was to much a
borderline case for that with my equipment.
Once you have seen it once, the next time it is easier. Nothwithstanding
a slight haze, I did find it on Sunday too.
Well, perhaps not the most beautifull comet, but since it is the leonid
parent comet, for me a special observation indeed.
I also did some meteor observations on Sunday, on which I reprot later.
-Marco Langbroek