FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Comet S-W 3 (73P)

[Michael Terenzoni <miket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I went out at around 3:15 a.m. to the east end of Speedway Blvd. here 
in Tucson to the parking lot of Saguaro National Park East (open all 
night) to observe Comet S-W 3 (73P) with my 10-inch custom made 
Dobsonian. The Moon was setting as I pulled out to make the drive 15 
minutes east on Speedway.

Comet S-W 3 fragment B came with a surprise as seen from this fairly 
dark site. It was 2 magnitudes brighter than I expected (I had 
checked Sky and Tel's web site for May 9 and not Spaceweather.com). 
Being in outburst, Fragment B is now at least a full magnitude 
brighter than Fragment C, and was far more impressive. A tail about 1 
to 1.5 degrees long was visible with a 35mm Televue Panoptic. I've 
updated the Flandrau Science Center web site (main page, 
http://www.flandrau.org ) and May's "Skywatcher's Guide" (at 
http://www.flandrau.org/astronomy/skywatchers ) to reflect this fact 
and have added updated sky charts and additional information.  I did 
not check fragment G.

If anyone has a link to sky charts for Fragment B for May 15-17, 
please let me know (otherwise I can get the orbital elements and 
enter manually when I have some more time).

Clear skies,

Mike Terenzoni
***********************************************************************
Michael Terenzoni     (520) 621-3646
Astronomy Coordinator    miket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Flandrau Science Center  Visit our web site: http://www.flandrau.org
The University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
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