by Ray Fox
Didja see it? It was clear this morning.
I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning at 4:30 in the hopes of catching Comet Pojmanski. A quick peek outside revealed a layer of fog blanketing the area. I almost turned around and climbed back in beneath the sheets, but instead, I stumbled through a bundling up process and headed out into a clearing in the greenbelt behind my house. Sunrise Blvd. was directly to the east of me, and unfortunately the headlights and streetlights were illuminating the fog quite effectively. Venus was shining brightly and I could clearly see Aquila, but Delphinus was lost in the haze. Using Starry Night Pro, I had positioned the comet and memorized its position in the morning sky, but I was using the dolphin as a primary landmark (skymark?).
Hoping the fog would clear a bit, I killed some time gazing at other celestial targets. I enjoyed the year's first peek at the Summer Triangle -- always a welcome site. They might not be big light buckets, but my Canon 10x30 Image-Stabilized binoculars offered a rock-steady view of Jupiter and several of its moons. Then I noticed a veil of clouds heading eastward to further lessen my chances of glimpsing the comet.
After several minutes of scanning the eastern sky, the kite-like asterism of Delphinus popped into view. And there, beneath and to the right, was a small, dim, aqua fuzzball, barely perceptible in my binos. I say aqua, but the color may have been more power of suggestion than actually perceived hue.
I studied it for quite a while until the veil of clouds obscured the view entirely. Content with my early morning session, I headed back in to catch a few more z's before starting my day.
Posted on tac-sac Mar 08, 2006 15:00:29 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 08, 2006 23:02:46 PT