[AZ-Observing] Further Comet Musings

In case it has not been brought up, the distance from the comet to the sun is 
2.44 a.u., and the distace to the earth is 1.63.  Using the latter number and 
the tangent function on my calculator, I get:

1 arcminute = 44,000 miles, call it 5 1/2 earth diameters.  That's the size of 
the bright shell last night, which was larger this morning.


This light curve on Seiichi Yoshida's site is not something you see every day.
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0017P/2007.html


John Bortle speculates on what could have caused the "mega-outburst."
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/message/12908


Jeremy's drawing is still the best representation I have been able to find of 
its appearance in a telescope.  None of the cameras appear to be up to the task 
of recording such a wide brightness range.


I forgot to mention that I ran through my color filter set (and my nebula 
filters while I was at it), and all of them but the orange filter harmed the 
view considerably.  The orange filter produced a slightly better defined disc.

Tom
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