Comet Bradfield

by Dennis Beckley

This morning I shocked my system by getting up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 to try and view Comet Bradfield. I'd seen SOHO images of it last week as it circled around the sun which were pretty fantastic - showing a beautiful huge tail.

Now it's outward bound and a very early morning object low in the Northeast just down from beta Andromeda.

I packed my 10 X 70mm Fujinon binoculars, binocular mount, MegaStar chart, red light, handbearing compass, and a big cup of coffee and started driving north on I-680 away from Benica looking for a suitably dark off-road site to set up where I wouldn't attract unwanted attention.

About half way to Cordelia I found an old farm road and set up a grassy knoll. I couldn't believe that I could actually see the summer Milky Way with all the light pollution from the various surrounding cities. Not bad!

I set my fuji's on Beta Andromeda and started moving down towards the horizon and all of a sudden it hit me!

What a gorgeous sight! Fantastic 4-5 degree tail heading up from the horizon attached to this bright bluish-white condensed nucleous! I could just see the nucleous naked-eye.

It was surreal - just me on the grassy knoll with the wind blowing looking for several minutes at this beautiful comet!

As twilight rapidly brightened, I packed up and headed back home and to bed around 5:30. I just wish someone else could have been there to share in this memorable experience.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 28, 2004 12:23:53 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 10, 2004 22:48:58 PT