[AZ-Observing] Comets from my driveway

Hello all;
Well, after failing to find Comet Linear last night I decided to give it a try 
again.  These observations are from my driveway in Phoenix, Arizona.  The 
transparency is quite good with no clouds at all.  Obviously, the limiting 
magnitude is not very deep, I would estimate 5.0, I can just barely see the 
Milky Way when Cygnus is straight up from my backyard.  That is obviously 
impossible tonight with a 75 percent illuminated Moon.

Anyway, I set up my new Orion 4 inch f/6 refractor in the driveway and preceded 
to scan "under" Alpha Hydrae using a 22mm Panoptic eyepiece.  I found the comet 
in about 3 minutes.  The time was 8:29 MST and the sky was still quite light, I 
would say that there was 30 minutes left until the end of astronomical 
twilight.  Of course, this is all inside a major metropolitan city, so it is 
somewhat academic.

Comet Linear is quite diffuse with either the 22mm Panoptic or the 14mm Ultra 
Wide eyepiece.  There is a brighter middle, but no tail or elongation was ever 
seen.  Once I knew where it was I could pick it out with the 8X424 binoculars, 
but it was faint and somewhat difficult.  This is a low surface brightness 
object, no doubt about it.  

However, Comet NEAT is still pretty bright.  It has a pretty high surface 
brightness core and it quite easy in the binoculars.  With the 14mm eyepiece in 
the RFT refractor there is a bright core about half a degree of tail.  I was 
amazed that I could see any tail on this object from my light polluted home.  
Even with the little 4 incher the light aqua color still persists around the 
coma of this comet.

Clear Skies to us all;
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.

Other related posts: