One of the objects that I observed on Monday night was the periodic comet 144P/Kushida. The last time I saw Comet Kushida was on the night of December 29. Since then I've tried to recover it three times, twice with the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at the ASH Naylor Observatory and once from another site with darker skies but with a smaller telescope. Both scopes were equipped with DSC devices but even so I couldn't locate the comet.
However, from the even darker site that I was just at Comet Kushida was visible as a faint and diffuse circular patch. The comet was definitely dimmer than when I saw it last. I observed Comet Kushida using a friend's 7.1" f/6 APM achromat equipped with a Denkmeier binoviewer, 21mm Denkmeier eyepieces, and a Denkmeier Power Switch diagonal and my 8" f/6 Starsplitter Tube Dob at 35 (35mm Tele Vue Panoptic) and 94x (13mm Tele Vue Ethos).
At the time, 144P/Kushida was located in eastern Taurus, about two thirds of the way between the Hyades and Collinder 65. Two small open clusters, NGC 1807 and NGC 1817, were just to the southeast of the comet and were in the same field of view when viewed through my telescope.
A current finder chart for the comet is posted at http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing/comets/144P.gif
Dave Mitsky
However, from the even darker site that I was just at Comet Kushida was visible as a faint and diffuse circular patch. The comet was definitely dimmer than when I saw it last. I observed Comet Kushida using a friend's 7.1" f/6 APM achromat equipped with a Denkmeier binoviewer, 21mm Denkmeier eyepieces, and a Denkmeier Power Switch diagonal and my 8" f/6 Starsplitter Tube Dob at 35 (35mm Tele Vue Panoptic) and 94x (13mm Tele Vue Ethos).
At the time, 144P/Kushida was located in eastern Taurus, about two thirds of the way between the Hyades and Collinder 65. Two small open clusters, NGC 1807 and NGC 1817, were just to the southeast of the comet and were in the same field of view when viewed through my telescope.
A current finder chart for the comet is posted at http://www.skyhound.com/cometchasing/comets/144P.gif
Dave Mitsky
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
