Binocular observation of comet Machholz (C/2004 Q2)

by Randy Muller

After missing it last night because I had mistakenly thought it had set, I looked at comet Machholz (C/2004 Q2) tonight with 10x50 binoculars from my backyard in Roseville.

Severe light pollution just barely prevented me from seeing it with my unaided eye, but it looked great in the binoculars. Not much tail, but a nice elongated coma with a nucleus displaced from the center toward the west. It seemed very large in the field of view.

It was pretty close to the zenith.

Much earlier in the evening, there was a lovely thin crescent moon low in the south west.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Jan 12, 2005 21:23:28 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 25, 2005 20:50:55 PT