OR: Coe 1/14

by Rob Hawley

We had an outstanding view of the comet. It was easily visible in binos shortly after sunset. I tried putting the 15" on it, but the scope would not go that low in the sky. I did get a good view through the finder and through a set of tripod mounted binos. It was very bright and sported a wide tail. I though at first that the tail might be split, but could not convince myself of that after looking further. Right before sunset the comet was visible to the unaided eye as a bright dot right above the mountains.

Sadly that is probably the end of the viewing. SMP shows it moving to the south of the sun by tonight and then moving lower the rest of the week. It will become a morning comet for the Aussies by the end of the month. By then it will dim to a >mere< mag 1.5.

Once it was dark I started on other stuff. There were a lot of comets up last night. The first I tried for was P/2006 HR30 Siding Spring which is near lambda Andromeda. Sadly it was also near a dim galaxy of about the same magnitude. What I believe was the galaxy was visible and I think I saw something else if I jiggled the scope, but I can't claim this one.

A bank of clouds approached about 9 PM. A lot of people left at that point. It looked like there was an edge so I waited and the sky was completely clear by about 10PM. The transparency was less than ideal.

After the sky cleared I went for 4P Faye which was near Menkar. Nothing else was in the area and the comet was easily visible framed with stars.

The rest of the evening was spent on eye candy stuff. My finder was not working properly so it was not a good night for really hard to find objects.

Another group of people decided to leave about 11:30. I had had enough by then and started packing up. I glanced at my high precision Radio Shack thermometer just before I left. 25º and 33% humidity. Easily the coldest observing night yet. With little wind and almost every piece of clothing it actually was more pleasant then some nights I have been at Coe.

Rob Hawley