Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsWell it turned out to be one great night. Comet Ikeya-Zhang was worth the trip alone. Wow what a comet! I used setting circles and my chart to get the jump on it. Since it set so early I really wanted to be on it for as long as possible. I had no idea what to expect. Boy was I surprised. Even in the somewhat bright twilight it was easy with the 40mm Wide Field. Then as it got darker, the tail really started to show itself amazingly well and the bluish color started to stand out. It had a very bright and dense core. Steve’s binoculars showed the full extent of its tail very well. I spotted it naked eye fairly early as well and was amazed that even with the moon 71% full, it was easy to spot. If only it was higher and there were no moon. It would be a solid contender for a Hale-Bopp look-alike. As it got darker Paul and I noticed that the tail seemed to have a split in it. A dust tail and ion tail? It was obvious in all scopes present. It didn’t stay long in the sky before it sank in the West. But what a super sight! In any other situation the following comment could get you slapped but “what a nice tail!” Those in attendance included myself, Steve Long, Paul Gray, Teresa Young and a couple from Paul’s neck of the woods, Barbara and Phil. Steve, Teresa and myself had our C8’s, Paul had his 12.5 Dob and Phil had a Meade ETX-90. After we drooled over the comet I moved on to Jupiter and Saturn. I failed to bring any information on what was happening with Jupiter’s moons but it looked like a shadow transit was taking place. I was wrong. Three moons were visible so the fourth was hiding. Well as it turns out the missing moon was hiding in Jupiter’s shadow and popped out while I wasn’t looking. Asteroid Vesta is in the same low power field as Saturn so I trained my scope on this object for a while. It’s so neat to see these solar system objects in some kind of perspective. After that it was just looking at some double, triple and quadruple star systems and some of the brighter Messier objects. Paul and I started to challenge each other with various deep sky objects. We are always pushing our observing skills to the limit and tonight was no exception! Since the moon was so bright it made the challenge tough. The first of which was to see if we could locate the planetary nebula nestled in the open cluster M46. It was fairly easy but an even better challenge was the tiny cluster next to M35 in Gemini. That was a tough one. Then I came up with the crazy idea of finding the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini. This is not usually a tough object except that the moon was only seven degrees away! Paul thought I was nuts but we both found it. I think our next challenge is to find the flag on the moon. I located M3 in CVn and I was holding out for M13 but I pooped out early. I also located M64 in Coma Berenices and M38 in Auriga. But all in all it was a spectacular evening catching up with folks and seeing some really great objects. I saw only one meteor and it was a super reddish colored fireball. For those of you who think that the moon ruins any chance of doing real astronomy, shame on you. The last two nights are proof enough that there can be some good observing done. Paul drove two hours to be there with us, so that means only one thing. I’m a bad influence on him! Clear skies and see you at the star party… if not before. Doug Norton strix@mindspring.com DNorton@state.de.us |