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(IAAC) C/1999 T1, the Great "Northern" Spot - 2/19/01 UT
Hello All,
What a great nite!
Very steady and transparent early on, and it got only a little worse as the
night progressed.
I was at the Naylor Observatory in Lewisberry, PA, using the 17" Classical
Cassegrain. (www.astrohbg.org)
I also had a nice view of Saturn, and viewed Jupiter, before fellow member
Dave Mitsky departed. Dave said before I arrived he was viewing Jupiter and
Saturn at 404X. Dave and I viewed Jupiter, and low and behold, about 1/4 way
in on the left limb of the northern equatorial belt, was the so called Great
Northern Spot that has recently been generating discussion. Very dark, and
fairly large.
Then after Dave left, I viewed several galaxies in Leo (NGC 2903, M-95, M-96,
M-105, etc.)
I then viewed several other objects before Hercules rose, with C/1999 T1, I
viewed M-13 while I was waiting for the other half of his body to rise. It
sure was nice to see a nice globular cluster again :) I then browsed around
Hercules to find Comet McNaught Hartley, for I only had Sky and Telescope
visual chart to work off of. The last time I saw the comet was during the
Quad meteor shower, and the comet has definitely dimmed considerably since
then, I wish I would have viewed it between Jan and now, but it was rising
too late for me to stay up, and too early for me to wake up :). I couldn't
notice a tail on the comet this time, and minimal structure in the coma was
seen.
I also saw a nice meteor at 12:34 AM EST, right out of the tail of Leo.
About-4 mag.
It sure was good to have a good CLEAR night around these parts, last clear
night was a week ago, seems we only get 1 clear night a week... I hate the
weather around here sometimes. And to have a good clear, stable, and
transparent night, comes 2 times a year :) Alas, the weather doesn't look
good for the rest of the week :)
I'm off to bed...
~Ted A. Nichols II
Member - Astronomical Society of Harrisburg
www.astrohbg.org
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