by Mark Wagner
Beside the gorgeous sunset planetary show in the west each night we've all been enjoying, I took a cue from Jeff Crilly and last night after 10 moved my bino-mount and 10x50's to where I could see Draco's head and quickly scanned for comet Izzy. Easy to see... even in the San Jose glow to the north of my home. Large and (to me) obvious. My 17 year old son and wife came out to look. I had to tell them to look at the edges of the field (averted vision) so they would more readily see the glow in the center of the field. Both saw it. We went to ask Mimi, already in bed on a school night, if she wanted to come down and see it through the binos.... she declined, saying she'd had a great view of it naked-eye and through a telescope at Coe last Saturday night.
Today I put the solar specs on the binos and peeked at the sun. Lots of sunspots.... a large group across the meridian, lots of smaller ones, and a new large one (group?) just on the surface's trailing edge. It feels to good to see this and feel the warmth of the sun on my face.
I'll probably uncover the 14.5" tonight and get in an hour or so out back after the Sharks whomp the snowmen tonight.