FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Comet Neat observation Saturday night

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all;
My observing buddy, David Fredericksen and I decided try a spot to the west of 
Phoenix, Az.  We headed about 80 miles out of town on I-10 to a country road 
called Eagle Eye.  It is quite dark, but we just could not make the clouds go 
completely away.  However, they did part a few times and we did get a decent 
view of Comet NEAT when the overhead fuzz would allow.

Tonight the comet was very near to the Beehive cluster in Cancer.  Once it was 
good and dark, they were both naked eye.  The cluster was a little brighter and 
quite a bit larger in size.

In my 8X42 binoculars the view of the comet and the Beehive cluster was 
terrific.  They both fit nicely in the 6 degree field of view.  There are 
several nice, wide pairs of stars in the Beehive and the comet showed a 5 
degree tail with a bright coma and core.  The brightest regions of the comet 
are light aqua in color, even in the binoculars.  There are several 3rd and 4th 
magnitude stars shining through the tail of the comet.  I returned to this view 
over and over again, it was unique.

Using my new 4.7 inch (120mm) refractor with a 22mm Panoptic eyepiece really 
did a great job showing off the brightest region of the comet.  The coma is an 
obvious blue-green color and the tail extends out of the 1.5 degree field of 
view.  Averted vision makes the coma grow much larger than direct vision.  I 
would estimate the coma at 25 arcminutes with direct vision and nearly one 
degree with averted vision.  It is a fascinating effect to look at, and then 
look away from, the head of this comet.  The inner part of the coma is high 
surface brightness and it is easy to tell that this is the part of the comet 
that an observer is seeing with the naked eye.

David and I tried some double stars in his Nexstar 11 GPS in an effort to judge 
the seeing.  We talked about observing sessions in the past; going to Riverside 
at the end of the month and observing sessions for the future.

Not the best evening with all those clouds passing through, but lots of fun 
regardless.

Steve Coe

Author "Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist"
Saguaro Astronomy Club website
www.saguaroastro.org
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.