[AZ-Observing] Two Comets
- From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 8:04:42 -0400
I'm just getting back from a late night/morning at Vekol. Transparency was
excellent, seeing and light breeze not so much. A good gauge of horizon crud
is the visibility of 4th-magnitude Sigma Centauri, which lies between the
"pointers" to Omega. It only reaches 7 degrees above the horizon, so if it's
easy to see, transparency on the desert floor is pretty good.
If you're headed out this weekend, be sure to check out two moderately bright
comets. Comet 81P/Wild 2 is located in Virgo, nearly at opposition. My
18-inch showed a flattened core and a foreshortened tail extending about a half
degree to the east. You have to wait until the morning hours for C/2009 K5 (
McNaught ) to rise, but it's worth it for the starry field in central Cygnus.
It is brighter than the earlier comet, but showed no tail -- just a very
concentrated coma. Both of these comets should be easy to see in an 8-inch
telescope. I didn't have it in me to wait until dawn to look at Don Machholz's
faint visual find.
Seiichi Yoshida has this good site for information and light curves:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html
Tom
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