Brightening comet, by camera and eye

by Greg LaFlamme

I was up at MB last night with David, Pete, George and a few other folks who showed up specifically for the comet. McNaught was big and beautiful. It was low in the horizon but not too low. Around 5:20 it had to be searched out of the bright back ground sky with binoculars but as time went on, it became very obvious. I had my 20x77 binos on a tripod and the nucleus appeared white hot. There were three or four tail streaks pouring out from behind. Like Bill Cone mentioned, as a side treat, there were orangey sun beams shooting upward as a backdrop for the show. My big binos showed great detail but the 10x50 binos nearby showed the tail better. Perhaps due to greater contrast. As twilight came, the tail showed best with undressed eyes. (I picked the right night, thanks the inspiration David!) . I got a neat feeling watching it and I could imagine the sound of a rocket engine at full thrust as a soundtrack. It was exciting and very worth the trip. As it quickly disappeared below the hill top, we all headed back to the parking lot to continue setting up for what turned out to be a great evening. I had my 10" f/4.5 and checked out the usual winter wonders then moved on to small open clusters. I learned a few new objects as we do at star parties. David had a wonderful view of ngc 7008 in his 14.5 with and without an OIII. I quickly added it to my object list. It was very interesting to see Pete imaging M33. He was running a series of exposures and right there on the LCD was M33. Cool, you imagers make it look easy. Around 10:00, I magged up to 325X and got right up on Saturn and watched it for about an hour. The night was just steady enough to support the magnification. Saturn rippled from blurry to cartoonish and razor sharp. What a bunch of fun! GO SEE THE COMET! GML