More McNaught, more snow

by Marek Cichanski

Just had a nice long session with McNaught in the ED80. It was positioned just right for me to catch it while set up in my garage, with the sun blocked by another part of the apartment complex. Since the sun was past the meridian, I didn't have to worry about the sun rising into my FOV. Nice.

I used the ED80 with a Denk II and 24 Pans. Used the finderscope to locate the comet, then played with different magnifications. As we observed last night at Windy Hill, it helped to mag down. As the semi-official Mag-Down King, I find this very gratifying.

The comet looked really nice, with the nucleus being a very bright starlike point. The coma and tail have a wonderful 'bow-shock' appearance, looking like a photo of a rocket seen several minutes after launch, with the engines being a bright dot surrounded by a streamlined nimbus of exhaust.

The snow continues apace. Man, it's blizzarding out there! If this stuff were hitting the ground and sticking, we'd be getting an inch or more of snow. Crazy! I don't see how it could be from a tree, it seems like there's too much of it and it's been going on too long. Plus, if it were from a tree, it would be piling up on the ground.

What a neat observing experience!

Marek

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