[AZ-Observing] Comet C/2002 C1 Ikeya/Zhang Image



I hope all who got out this weekend took a look at the comet.  I know
that the ephemerides show that it should be mag 8+ I think it was
substantially brighter saturday night.  Thom Peck found it easily with
my 8x50 binos in the low horizon haze as he helped me get sighted in.  I
got the CCD focused in time to take a couple sequences before it set.  I
even found the time to stack and process the images this afternoon after
getting up.  Fortunately the wind held off until just at dawn and the
whole night was pretty good other than somewhat unsteady seeing.

http://aecooper.home.att.net/dropbox/IkeyaZhang.jpg

Nice thin tail extending off to the east.  It was not visible with
smaller apertures, but could be seen with Sam Rua's 20" obsession. In
binos or an 8" SCT it was an evenly round fuzzball with a sharply
brighter nucleus.  Photo taken at the TAAA's TIMPA site.

Here's looking forward to its return to the morning sky.  Hopefully we
will have two bright comets in the pre-dawn sky come the mid-April new Moon.

One more peek at the night's products...

http://aecooper.home.att.net/dropbox/NGC4565.jpg

Andrew


-- 

Andrew Cooper
Tucson, AZ
mailto:acooper@xxxxxxxxx
http://whitethorn.house.home.att.net
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