Comet McNaught from Windy Hill

by Bob Jardine

On Thursday afternoon, I finally got up the nerve to drive back up to Skyline, this time in a rental car. I left work early so I could drive extra slowly. This time I saw two raccoons, a small creature that looked like a fox, zero deer, and one comet.

I met up with David Kingsley, Marek, and James Turley (and a bunch of others that I didn't know) at Windy Hill. The comet appeared much as others have described it; I thought it was quite spectacular.

Many of us commented on how we could see just about the same length tail with the unaided eye as we could in binoculars. Certainly more detail in the binocs, but no more length. I was using Canon IS 15X50s.

Interestingly, we could still see the tail for about one minute after the coma set below the final cloud bank (which occupied about the last 1/2 degree above the ocean/horizon).

Bob J.

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