[AZ-Observing] What You Missed by Staying Home Saturday night...

Hi All-

I've been rather embarrassed the last couple weeks as I've always
considered myself a competent comet observer (going back to Bennett in
'70).  But after 2 failed attempts from Tucson before perihelion (likely
poor horizons), and spending last weekend socked-in near Chicago (with the
fiancee - yes, you heard it here first!) while the rest of the world saw
it in broad daylight, I had given up much chance of seeing Mcnaught.

Then Brian Skiff mentioned the synchronic bands were visible a few nights
back (cloudy here that night). So tonight, with the waxing moon, and a few
sucker holes, I headed west towards Kitt Peak.  There was a fog cap on the
mountaintop, so I stayed at the base near the turnoff where it was merely
partly cloudy.  I set up the G-11 with the Canon 20Da, so I wouldn't have
to worry about guiding with whatever lens I might need.  Even before
twilight was over, I could spot some of the brighter bands.  The first
shot is with a 16mm fisheye for 60 seconds (all exposures were 60 seconds
at F/2.8).  I used photoshop's auto-color correction - between the low
moon and the LPS lights of Sells bouncing off the clouds, it needed it:

http://alice.as.arizona.edu/~ketelsen/Mcnaught16mm60sACCSM.jpg

I then switched to a 50mm lens for a closer look.  This is a stacked pair
of 60 second images, 2 minutes total exposure.  Note there were small
clouds drifting thru...:

http://alice.as.arizona.edu/~ketelsen/McNaught50mmAve2X60sSM.jpg

I then went for something in between, a 20mm for the first shot of what
became a sequence:

http://alice.as.arizona.edu/~ketelsen/Mcnaught20mm60sACCSM.jpg

The clouds moved in, but I kept exposing "just in case", and I made a
quick and dirty GIF.  I need to go back and adjust the individual levels,
but the bands to pop out between the clouds occasionally:

http://alice.as.arizona.edu/~ketelsen/McNaughtSynchones.gif

I'll try to get to those adjustments tomorrow, but thought I'd get these
up quickly for now.

So at least I saw part of the comet.  I've got pretty strong feelings
against calling it the comet of the decade when it was never far from the
sun, but because of the daylight visibility, it is shaping up that way. 
Tomorrow and later the moon will be right where the bands were tonight, so
tonight might well have been the last chance for a good look, but good
luck to everyone and their observing programs.

-Dean
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