Comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3

by Pentti Kanerva

On the night of the full moon (May 12-13) the comet was supposedly closest to the earth. I wanted to see it as big as it gets and took the scope out at 4am Saturday morning; was also intrigued by Dennis' reports of Fragment B now outshining its big brother C. The sky was clear and the moon low behind an oak tree.

Fragment B in Cygnus was the star of the show, visible even with 9x25 binoculars. In a 5" Mak at 220x the core was stellar and the tail extended for 10' against the moon-lit sky. Fragment C in Vulpecula was much fainter--beyond the binoculars--with a core and a slightly asymmetric halo. I'm still amazed by the speed with which these things travel. Clearly detectable motion in less than half an hour.

Around 5am the birds announced the beginning of twilight. I took a blinding look at the moon boiling in the earth's atmosphere before going in for some more sleep.

Posted on sf-bay-tac May 14, 2006 08:25:51 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Jul 18, 2006 17:57:05 PT

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