FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Comet McNaught in the evening

["Jimmy Ray" <jimmy_ray@xxxxxxx>]

I agree with Tom. Starry Night shows it much lower than Venus and half =
way between Venus and Altair. It also shows that it will set around 1810 =
hrs. I am fortunate in that I have a west facing second story window =
with nothing between it and the White Tanks, 20 miles or so away. I'll =
give it a shot this evening and see what turns up.=20

Here is what is on "Weekly Information about Bright Comets":

It was 4.5 mag on Dec. 26 (Piotr Guzik), then it is brightening rapidly =
up to 1.0 mag on Jan. 5 (Piotr Guzik). Now it is extremely difficult to =
observe it. However, because the comet is very bright, it is visible =
with naked eyes in the extremely low sky in the twilight if the sky =
condition is excellent. Some reported the comet is easily visible with a =
tail through binoculars. It came to look as a great comet in Michael =
Jager and Gerald Rhemann's image on Jan. 5. It will pass only 0.17 A.U. =
from the sun in mid January, and reach to -2 mag. It will be also =
visible in the SOHO/LASCO images in mid January. It will pass only 40 =
arcmin from Mercury on Jan. 14 at 16 o'clock (UT). Because the comet is =
moving southwards, it will be unobservable in the Northern Hemisphere =
soon. In the Southern Hemisphere, it appears at around 2 mag in late =
January, then it keeps observable while fading gradually. In the =
Northern Hemisphere, it will never be observable again.=20

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, =
h) =20
Jan.  6  19  4.94   -7 43.5   1.138   0.314    14    1.3   5:38 =
(273,-10) =20
Jan. 13  19 55.69  -16 49.1   0.849   0.171     6   -2.0  18:38 ( =
76,-12) =20


Jimmy Ray.

-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tom Polakis
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 10:50 AM
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Comet McNaught in the evening


Steve,

We failed to see it, and I really thought we had done everything right, =
including a plot with a horizon using planetarium software.  We even set =
the Pronto up on the roof; I'm sure the neighbors were amused.  I wonder =
if I was looking too low, as I had the altitude at only a half hour =
after sunset as being only about half that of Venus.  Sounds like =
operator error on my part.

As for the -4 magnitude, I've been reading 0 or -1 on the comets-ml =
Yahoogroup.  It is more than 4 magnitudes brighter than the orginal =
ephemeris.

Tom

---- Steve Coe <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:=20
> Howdy all;
>=20
> I just, and I do mean just, caught a quick look at Comet McNaught =
above the
> sunset.  About 45 minutes after the ball of the Sun disappeared, I =
made the
> observation below.  This is from Phoenix, I have a pretty flat western
> horizon and there is a gentle climb to get to my house.
>=20
> 8X42 binoculars from my driveway, very faint, low contrast round glow =
just
> seen in the evening twilight.  Not much from in town with the =
binoculars,
> but there was a faint fuzz ball at the correct position "under" =
Altair.  It
> has an altitude just less than Venus in the western sky. =20
>=20
> I don't know who said that this thing has a calculated magnitude of =
-4, but
> it certainly was a lot fainter than Venus to my eye.
>=20
> I hope someone else got a chance to see it;
>=20
> Steve Coe
>=20
> --
> See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and =
please=20
> send personal replies to the author, not the list.
>=20

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See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and =
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