hey deb did any pictures of the comet turn out good jimbooooooooooooooooooo ----- Original Message ----- From: <astrodeb@charter.net> To: "Utah Valley Astronomy Association" <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 10:12 AM Subject: Re: Re: [UVAA] C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) Comet
I drove out to the Kayenta desert community, west of Ivans UT last night around 9:30 pm. I wanted to wait a few minutes while Orion and Lepus were rising out of the St. George sky glow. I turned my 15 X 70 binoculars toward Auriga and viewed M38 and M37, my two favorites in Auriga. I then viewed M35 in Gemini, a real treat in binoculars. After that I viewed the Hyades in Taurus and then the Pleaides above. I love the blue stars in that cluster.
My arms were getting tired since I don't have a tripod or parallelagram mount for the binoculars so I let my arms rest for a few minutes. By that time, Lepus was a little higher in the sky so I searched west into the constellation Eridanus. Anyway, I found this big, bright round fuzzy object the size of Omega Centauri. It was bigger and brighter than I had expected to see it. I thought "wow, this thing is going to get brighter next month". I couldn't detect a tail but I'm thinking I should go east of town next time to a truly dark site and take some photos of this comet. It did not disappoint me. It is going northward more each night and the show will get better from now on.
Debbie
From: <astrodeb@charter.net> Date: 2004/12/09 Thu PM 05:13:29 MST To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [UVAA] C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) Comet
I may drive out to Ivins UT to have a look in my 15 X 70 binoculars tonight. It is still a mag 5.5 comet now. I'll give a report when I get back tonight.
Debbie
From: David Trevino <dotrevino@yahoo.com> Date: 2004/12/08 Wed PM 04:24:02 MST To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [UVAA] C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) Comet
I am reading reports that this comet is easy to find with binoculars (and telescopes of course).
Looks like its orbit will place it at very high declinations. Should be a nice treat this holiday season (maybe try your new scope you are getting for x-mas?)
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1396_1.asp
for more charts, check
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/charts.html
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