[AZ-Observing] Re: Observed 50 comets in my life--so far
- From: stevecoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 10:56:49 -0700
Tom, et al;
Here are the notes for the fainter comets up to 1994. I will post them
in several pieces. The brighter comets (Halley, Hyakutake, Linear and
like that are in separate files.
Comets I have observed
by Steve Coe
Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock
6 May 1983 Hillside, Az. 17.5" f/4.5 S=6 T=8
100X can just keep up with fast moving comet. Bright
core and hint of a fan shape. Naked eye it is seen
easily near the Head of Draco. It moves fast enough that
if you look away and look back in 5 minutes or so it has
obviously moved to a new position. Fascinating.
Comet Cromellin
28 Jan 84 Buckeye-Pistol Range 17.5" f/4.5 5/10 S+T
100X Pretty faint, Round, no tail, no elongation, stellar
nucleus, just a round smudge.
24 Feb 84 Table Mesa 17.5" f/4.5 4/10 S+T
100X Somewhat diffuse and elongated, estimate 10th mag.
Nucleus compression equals 5. Zodiacal light interferes
somewhat. Comet is a little fan-shaped.
3 Mar 84 Dugas Rd. 17.5" f/4.5 7/10 S+T
100X Total mag. equals 8th mag. Extended 3X1, but not
a noticeable tail. Bright point for nucleus, but the
nucleus is offset within the coma. Looks somewhat like
a comet shape.
Comet Levy
23 Nov 84 Painted Rock Dam 17.5" f/4.5 7/10
135X Pretty bright, round, bright nucleus, no tail
at any power. Found easily at 50X.
21 Dec 84 Painted Rock Dam 17.5" f/4.5 8/10
135X Bright, round, somewhat compressed, bright core.
Easy to see in M-17 Elbow finderscope.
Comet Giacobini-Zinner
9 Aug 85 Dugas Rd. 18" f/6 8/10
135X Nice comet shape, somewhat like a bullit.
Occaisonally there is a stellar nucleus.
Comet Bradfield
16 Oct 87 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 6/10 S+T
Easy in 8X50 finder. At 100X, the nice comet shows
a tail that goes out of the 30 arcmin field of view.
The nucleus is about 10 arcsec in size and is located
within an obvious "hood" of material, seen as a bright
rim at the leading edge of the coma.
19 Oct 87 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 8/10 S+T
Seen naked eye, with averted vision. A nice view in
the 10X50 binocs, M-10 and M-12 and comet all fit in
the field of view of the binocs. 100X Obvious
"hood" in the coma, it arcs over a bright nucleus.
There is a hint of an ion tail down the middle of
the broad dust tail. It is very "comet shaped".
21 Nov 87 Sentinel 13" f/5.6 9/10 great night
60X 38mm Giant Erfle eyepiece provides excellent view
of this bright, large comet with a great tail. There is
a small extension of the tail off to one side and the
ion tail stands out nicely within the dust tail. The
nucleus is almost stellar and is in the middle of a
bright, round coma.
Comet Liller
11 May 88 Table Mesa 13" f/5.6 7/10
100X Nice comet, spike in tail with averted vision.
Broad, dust tail with bright coma and centered, bright
nucleus of about 9th mag. Easy in 10X50 Binoculars.
Comet Ozikawa-Levy-Redenko
30 Sept 89 Camp Andromeda 13" f/5.6 7/10
Easy in 11X80 finder, above Arcturus. The tail is a
narrow spike with a "hood" over the nucleus. The
bright nucleus has a stellar core at 165X.
Comet Levy
20 July 90 Dugas Rd. 13" f/5.6 5/10
100X Bright, pretty large, fan shaped, Bright nucleus.
16 Sept 90 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 6/10
100X Bright, looks like a comet, ion spike in dust
tail, nice nucleus within pretty bright coma. Total
mag is about 7th. There is an 11th mag star within
the coma, about 1 arcmin from nucleus and a lovely
orange star about 10 arcmin outside the core.
11X80 finder with 20mm Erfle installed shows this
comet off very nicely. Really looks like a comet.
Just barely naked eye, about 6.4 mag. Only seen
naked eye once the twilight decreased and had a
darker sky background.
Comet Mueller
23 Feb 92 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 6/10
100X Bright, large, very bright nucleus, short spike
tail. Averted vision makes the tail more visible
because it is in zodiacal light. This nice comet
is easy in the 11X80 finder.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy
25 July 92 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 5/10
100X Bright, brighter middle, elongated 3X1 in PA 90.
There is a pretty faint star involved near the nucleus.
Easily seen in 10X50 binocs.
Comet Swift-Tuttle
19 Oct 92 Dugas 13" f/5.6 7/10
135X Bright, pretty large, much brighter middle, stellar
nucleus, fan shaped with nucleus offset to east.
The bright almost stellar nucleus is about 5 arcsec in
size. Immediately obvious in either 10X50 binocs or finder.
Even the 11X80 finder shows the wide "V" shape.
24 Nov 92 Cherry Rd. 13" f/5.6 7/10
150X Bright, very large, elongated 5X1 in PA 45, with
tail that extends beyond the field of the 14mm UWA.
Very bright and almost stellar nucleus with round coma,
from which tail eminates. Easy in 10X50 binocs,
with about 2 degrees of tail and a coma that is much
brighter than the tail.
21 Dec 92 Buckeye 13" f/5.6 6/10
100X Bright, large, nice comet. A very bright
coma with a small nucleus. There is a split in
the tail and several stars involved. It looks like
it is passing a light orange star, near the nucleus.
The nucleus appears offset within the coma. Several
minutes after the previous observation, when the
twilight had done down, it is just seen naked eye
and I estimated 5.5 mag in the 10X50 binocs.
6 May 94 Comet McNaught-Russell Sentinel 13" f/5.6
About 11th magnitude, pretty bright, pretty large and little
elongated at 100X on a fair night.
13 July 94 Comet Nakamura-Nishimura-Macholz
13" f/5.6 Dugas Road just me 7/10
100X pretty faint, pretty large, elonagated 1.8X1
in PA 60, bright middle. This comet grows in size
with averted vision. It was tough to find because
I have an equtorial mount and this comet is at a
position in the sky of +70 Declination.
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