S4 LINEAR Tail Length?

by Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky


On July 2 10:00 UT at the OCA Anza site 12 miles from Palomar Mountain, I logged S4's tail as about 1/2 degree long using 64x in my 45cm Dob.

Last night July 23 04:33UT (note this most likely is well before astronomical twightlight ended, but haze and smoke hastened the onset of dark conditions), same location, with 10x50 binoculars I logged:

Easy to see approx south of TY3441-318-1. Bright nucleus and tail stretching at least one half degree, and I "think" it's more like one degree.

However in my f/8 130EDT at 33x and 86x I noted the tail seemed to be much harder to trace for any significant length. Indeed I only noted the obvious fan shaped extensions around the bright nucleus a small thin spike about twice the length of the 'fan' area.

Somehow, a much larger FOV in the 10x50 gave the required 'context' to see the tail as somewhat longer than even the large 2+ degree FOV in the AP.