FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Deep Impact - from Dewey, AZ

[AJ Crayon <acrayon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Almost at the last minute I decided to go up to Stan Gorodinski's at 
Dewey, AZ.  There was a nice crowd of about 20 folks there.  In the 
14.5-inch f5.2 at 60X the comet was initially found by Lynn Blackburn  
near a nice triangular pattern of stars.  The comet was about 5' in 
diameter, 12th mag and darned difficult to find!  It didn't respond to 
the Swan Band filter but had a very gradually little brighter middle.  
Going to 140X improved the image.  At about 06:05UT July 4th, Lynn 
announced it looked a little brighter.  Bob (unknown last name), Frank 
and myself agreed.  A couple of minutes later (sorry I didn't record the 
time) an unmistakable stellar nucleus was easily seen. I tried 
defocusing to compare the magnitudes of the triangular grouping of 
stars.  They all seemed brighter than the comet.  I judged the comet to 
brighten by about 1/2 magnitude but didn't see any change in size.  At 
06:27UT Sherly felt it easier to see now than when first seen.  The 
comet never responded to the Swan Band filter.  During this time period 
the comet moved several diameters.

Sounds like all have a good time watching this unique event.

Clear skies,
AJ Crayon


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