[AZ-Observing] Deep Impact observation near Salome, Az
- From: "Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 02:58:18 -0700
Howdy all;
Myself, David Fredericksen and Rich Walker went to the Eagle Eye Road =
site
about 80 miles from Phoenix. I rated the seeing at 6/10 and the
transparency at 7/10, a good night on the Arizona desert.
I set up my 4 inch f/6 RFT refractor for some viewing along the Milky =
Was as
we waited for Deep Impact on Comet Tempel 9/P. Rich Walker had his 13 =
inch
f/5 Newtonian and David had his Nexstar 11 SCT. We easily found the =
comet
near Spica, I even could pick it out with averted vision in the little
scope.
As the impact time arrived, the comet was closer to the horizon and I =
gave
up using the 4 incher and mooched some observations with the larger =
scopes.
The view was essentially the same in both instruments, maybe a little =
better
in Rich's 13 incher at 185X.
What we saw was the core of the comet brighten up by about 2 magnitudes =
in a
15 minute period of time and then stay that bright as it set over the
horizon. Obviously, as it got within 15 degrees of the horizon or so, =
it
was pretty difficult to see any changes.
It was interesting and I am glad that we went out to see it, certainly a
once in a lifetime event. It was one of those observing events where =
the
actual view was kind of "ho hum", but realizing what we were seeing was
quite fascinating.
A fun evening;
Steve Coe
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