This is a post that showed up on the International Occultation Timing Association earlier today: I was able to observe comet McNaught before sunset yesterday with my WAT 902H2 Ultimate video camera set to low gain and then manual shutter control. I did a dummy one-star align on my GPS scope. Found Venus in my finder scope. Centered and SYNC'd on Venus and then slewed to the comet and voila, there is was, dead center on the video screen. Based on that experience, I'm guessing it will be visible in a clear blue daylight sky. I did shoot some video, but camcorder malfunctioned and I only got a very few frames. It is a nice sight! Once found in the telescope, I was able to see McNaught in binoculars, again, just before sunset, with the sun behind some clouds to obscure the direct glare. Good luck to all. Tony George Umatilla, Oregon
Finally the sky has cleared and C.McNaught was seen about 6-8º above the horizon between the clouds. Bright coma, full extent of the tail was lost in the sunset glow. I'll be attempting some photos over the next few days and if any are successful , I'll post them. Aloha Rob
Morning or evening, Rob? We've been socked-in here, on-and-off snow flurries. Any clearings are hit-and-miss. Right now it's 11F outside my door, temps can easily fall another six or eight degrees by sunrise. And BTW, welcome to SLAS! --- Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
Finally the sky has cleared and C.McNaught was seen about 6-8º above the horizon between the clouds. Bright coma, full extent of the tail was lost in the sunset glow. I'll be attempting some photos over the next few days and if any are successful , I'll post them.
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On 12 Jan 2007, at 23:32, Chuck Hards wrote:
And BTW, welcome to SLAS! Making him the most distant SLAS member and now eligible to host the next SLAS December Solstice Festival (Ann, can you arrange that?). :)
BTW, to get back on topic, playing with TheSky I see that McNaught will start transiting (as seen from Utah) below and about 30 minutes time behind the Sun starting on Monday (the 15th). McNaught Transit Data (SLC) Date Alt Time Separation from Sun 15 22° 1305 08° 16 19° 1307 11° 17 16° 1308 14° 18 13° 1308 16° 19 11° 1308 19° pw
Patrick It would be an honor to host the next SLAS Winter Solstice Party (and Luau) here in Hawaii, so y'all come!! Tomorrow night we'll be hosting some amateurs from Costa Rica as well as some of the kids from Kamehameha School Maui Astronomy Club. Sunday night will be at the Solar-C Telescope w/ Dr. Jeff Kuhn doing spectrographic observations of C.McNaught but Monday the 15th should be a good night w/ the comet standing on its head. A hui ho Rob
Since the Solstice party is always "pot luck", I'll bring my famous green-bean caserole on the plane- IF I can get it past Homeland Security. ;o) --- Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
It would be an honor to host the next SLAS Winter Solstice Party (and Luau) here in Hawaii, so y'all come!!
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You know, we're all chuckling over this just now but SLAS has been known to do some pretty weird things. Anyone remember the "little flight" we tried to put together to see the eclipse from one location in Mexico that ended up filling one 737 and part of another and going to both the mainland and Baja? So, who knows, maybe a SLAS trip to the Hawaiian Observatories could happen one day... pw On 13 Jan 2007, at 17:47, Chuck Hards wrote:
Since the Solstice party is always "pot luck", I'll bring my famous green-bean caserole on the plane- IF I can get it past Homeland Security. ;o)
--- Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
It would be an honor to host the next SLAS Winter Solstice Party (and Luau) here in Hawaii, so y'all come!!
Chuck it was tonight. Got a call from my friend Robert w/ lots of excitement in his voice. I grabbed my binocs and even got the wife to take a look. It looks as if we'll be in good position to see the comet the next few evenings (a volcano blocks my eastern view for the AM look) so we'll be up Haleakala having a good look see. Hopefully I'll have a few photos to share. I can only imagine what this comet would be like in an inky black sky........................................ BTW temp was 76º at sunset Aloha Rob
participants (3)
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Chuck Hards -
Patrick Wiggins -
Rob Ratkowski Photography