Tony Donnangelo, Maura Smith, and I observed Comet McNaught P1 again on Wednesday evening from the same hilltop as on Monday. It was very cold and windy once more, although not quite as windy as on Monday evening.
This time I spotted the comet first using a 8x42 Celestron Noble binocular and was able to see it naked-eye almost immediately thereafter. The time for the naked-eye sighting was 5:20 p.m. EST (22:20 UT), ten minutes earlier than on Monday evening. Unfortunately, there were more low clouds yesterday evening and the amount of time we actually saw the comet was far less. By 5:44 p.m. EST it had sank into an horizon hugging cloud bank and that was all she wrote.
This time Tony brought his 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromatic refractor and I my new 80mm f/7.5 Vixen 80EDSf refractor but despite the expensive glass the views weren't correspondingly better than on Monday due to the clouds and the comet's lower altitude.
I also took a few prime shots of the comet through the Vixen with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR but it was in and out of the clouds during that period. I'll post the pictures when I find the time to process them.
Dave Mitsky
This time I spotted the comet first using a 8x42 Celestron Noble binocular and was able to see it naked-eye almost immediately thereafter. The time for the naked-eye sighting was 5:20 p.m. EST (22:20 UT), ten minutes earlier than on Monday evening. Unfortunately, there were more low clouds yesterday evening and the amount of time we actually saw the comet was far less. By 5:44 p.m. EST it had sank into an horizon hugging cloud bank and that was all she wrote.
This time Tony brought his 102mm f/8 Takahashi FS-102 apochromatic refractor and I my new 80mm f/7.5 Vixen 80EDSf refractor but despite the expensive glass the views weren't correspondingly better than on Monday due to the clouds and the comet's lower altitude.
I also took a few prime shots of the comet through the Vixen with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel DSLR but it was in and out of the clouds during that period. I'll post the pictures when I find the time to process them.
Dave Mitsky
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
