Tom; I would say that your "half the altitude of Venus" estimate is correct. Venus is over North Mountain from in front of my house and the short = view of the comet I saw was just 3 or 4 degrees above the horizon. It is a = tough object to view, no doubt. Steve -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Polakis Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 10:50 AM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Comet McNaught in the evening Steve, We failed to see it, and I really thought we had done everything right, including a plot with a horizon using planetarium software. We even set = the Pronto up on the roof; I'm sure the neighbors were amused. I wonder if = I was looking too low, as I had the altitude at only a half hour after = sunset as being only about half that of Venus. Sounds like operator error on = my part. As for the -4 magnitude, I've been reading 0 or -1 on the comets-ml Yahoogroup. It is more than 4 magnitudes brighter than the orginal ephemeris. Tom ---- Steve Coe <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:=20 > Howdy all; >=20 > I just, and I do mean just, caught a quick look at Comet McNaught = above the > sunset. About 45 minutes after the ball of the Sun disappeared, I = made the > observation below. This is from Phoenix, I have a pretty flat western > horizon and there is a gentle climb to get to my house. >=20 > 8X42 binoculars from my driveway, very faint, low contrast round glow = just > seen in the evening twilight. Not much from in town with the = binoculars, > but there was a faint fuzz ball at the correct position "under" = Altair. It > has an altitude just less than Venus in the western sky. =20 >=20 > I don't know who said that this thing has a calculated magnitude of = -4, but > it certainly was a lot fainter than Venus to my eye. >=20 > I hope someone else got a chance to see it; >=20 > Steve Coe >=20 > -- > See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please=20 > send personal replies to the author, not the list. >=20 -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please=20 send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.