[AZ-Observing] Comet Neat
- From: "Stanley A. Gorodenski" <stan_gorodenski@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 22:16:19 -0800
I decided to get out and look at comet Neat (my first chance after
almost a week in Phoenix). There was no burning desire to do so because
in my telescope, a 26 arc minute field of view with my 32 mm erfle,
comets are usually uninteresting fuzzy blobs. It was as expected,
although if were to take eyepiece projection photos maybe I would have
seen something more interesting like I did of HaleBopp(Stevens) (see
http://users.commspeed.net/stanlep/B60AS31.jpg ). The nucleus (of comet
Neat) was condensed and starlike, and for a short while I thought I was
observing a partial breakup of the nucleus. However, after observing for
10-15 minutes the distance between the nucleus and the alleged detached
part increased by about 3 fold from its original distance of about 30
arc seconds. It became obvious I was observing a background star shining
through the head, but it revealed more clearly just how fast the comet
is moving. Aside from this, the surrounding area of the nucleus at times
appeared to take on a granular appearance but I am not sure I was seeing
something that was real. The best view was through my 11x80 binoculars.
Very nice head and tail.
Stan
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