Comet seen and lost

Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) has been thrilling skywatchers around the world for several days now. Discovered in August 2006, it continues to brighten as it approaches the Sun and it is now reported to be the brightest comet seen in 30 years. Our wonderful Northeastern Ohio cloud cover had hidden the view from us. Well, I saw it tonight! Briefly, thanks to the clouds clearing (mostly) around sunset. I went to the roof of the library (where I work) during my dinner hour taking along my camera and tripod. It was a beautiful sunset with orange and red colors illuminating jet contrails in the western sky. As the twilight dimmed and Venus sparkled to the southwest, I spotted Comet McNaught glowing a ghostly white between the orange jet trails. It was bright, even at about 5:30 when I first sighted it. Still, as the night fell so did the comet. Already low in the sky, McNaught sank behind the trees far to the west of the building before it really became photogenic, having been visible to me for only 10 minutes or so. Still, I saw it with and without the telephoto lens: my first comet of the year! So, with freezing (20 - 30 degrees F.) metal tripod in hand, I headed back into the building and back to work.

Waiting for sunset

Drove to Letha House Park and the CAA's observatory site for a night of observing. Packing the telescope equipment, folding table, and other gear in the 1997 Honda Civic is a lot of effort but it fits in the hatchback better than the other car!

My first planetary image!

Spent some time tonight at Chaunticlair Observatory with the 90mm and my Web cam attempting to image Jupiter. Things went well! The evening's efforts resulted in my first astrophoto of another planet and I'm pretty happy with it. Jupiter showed up with the two big cloud bands along with its four Galilean moons (left to right): Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede. That speck in the lower right-hand corner of the picture is a star. The imager was a Philips ToUcam. Separate exposures were made for the planet and its moons --frame grabs, no image stacking-- at about 10:45 p.m. on a night of average seeing from North Royalton, Ohio.

Nice evening at CAA Observatory

Star party at the CAA observatory near Spencer, Ohio. Got some really nice views of objects through Jerry Kay's 10-inch reflector. At about 100X, I saw M43 (deMairan's Nebula), M42 (Orion Nebula), M41 (Little Beehive -- also seen through my binoculars), M44 (Beehive Cluster), NGC 884 & 869 (Perseus Double Cluster), and Comet Machholtz through the 10-inch, binoculars, and barely with unaided eye. Still not a spectacular comet, but hey... it's a comet.

Comet Machholtz in the cold

Went outside our place in North Royalton at about 10:30 PM to look for Comet Machholtz (C2004 Q2). Very cold (20 F) with haze on the horizon, semi-transparency overhead. Used my Nikon binoculars, handheld and was able to see the comet as a large "fuzz ball" through the eyepieces; no tail visible. It was in the constellation Perseus near the star Algol and not too hard to spot. Also enjoyed nice views of the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades.

New telescope mount makes big difference

Up til now I've been using a very shaky alt-az mount and tripod that came with the 90mm Meade telescope. Now I've got a really solid setup. Just after sunset and until about 8:30 PM I viewed the Moon using various eyepieces, ND filter, with the telescope on the new Orion SkyView Pro mount and tripod. How wonderful to have a sturdy, steady mount that shows little vibration, dampens quickly, and has a RA motor! All worked well but now I have to learn to use the setting circles and sidereal time to locate objects. I've wanted a setup like this since boyhood and it is certainly a joy to work with. The heavy-duty mount also makes my highest-power eyepiece usable -- and I had thought I had reached the telescope's limits! Seeing was mediocre with light pollution from town and Moon and high-altitude haze so I tore down at about 9:30 PM. Second-floor deck is within about 20 degrees of east-west so it works well for blindly orienting the EQ mount -- the view is to the south with all northern sky blocked by the house. That's Chaunticlair Observatory for you!

Burrell Observatory

Went to the Baldwin-Wallace College open house at Burrell Observatory in Berea. The sky had just cleared after a full day of overcast. I arrived there before anyone else (skipped the pre-observing lecture) and talked with the student operators about the telescope -- a grand 12-inch refractor -- in the fading daylight from about 9:15 to 9:30 PM. Sky conditions were marginal or fair. Still, very nice views of the 3/4 Moon. Good detail, low contrast, through the big scope. Looking at Jupiter, though, no detail at all. At home viewed the same with the 90mm and got high-contrast, brilliant (dazzling) views of the Moon. Jupiter was still disappointing, however, apparently due to the Earth's atmosphere. Galilean moons were all on one side: O * * * * Shut down my scope at about 11:15. Nicest experience of the evening was the beautiful views of the lunar Apennies and Carpathian Mountains ringing Mare Imbrium -- especially lovely through the B-W scope. The Meade excelled in showing details on the surface of the Mare.