Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 21, 2010 15:27:29 GMT -6
Hunting down Comet McNaught
20 June 2010
20 June 2010
I have been desiring to capture this comet for some time now, but the weather has been a factor for decent viewing. Fellow Chicago Astronomer Bill and I made plans for a early morning session to set up by Chicago Astronomer site #2 and see how our luck would be.
We had a fun easy star party just hours before, and I was kinda tired and almost called it off, but went anyway...I can always sleep later.
Arriving at the site at 2:30 am, we calibrated our scopes, (Bill with his 4" William Optics refractor and I with the C11), on other targets while we wait for Comet McNaught for rise above the atmospheric muck. We did some Jupiter and Andromeda galaxy - which were pretty good. Bill caught some good M31 images on his camera.
The comet is diving toward Capella now and with some searching, I spotted it with the 15X70's Binos. Faint, no tail and really...quite disappointing...
The mosquitoes were out in force this session, first of the season and Bill donned a hood to keep them at bay, as we had no DEET to repel them.
This pic looks ghostly with the hood....
Bill imaged the comet early, with good results, (pics I hope later), but I was doing some filter tests on M31 with some narrowband/broadband/O III/skyglow eyepiece filters. The results were not spectacular and subtle at best. Just plain direct unfiltered observing was better.
Concluding the tests, I slewed down to the comet, but now, a thin haze, pending sunrise and clouds were floating in, obscuring the faint comet now...and not even with the C11 was I able to locate it...
The comet was lost to us for this session...
Now, at 3:00-ish, the dawn was approaching and cutting down our session greatly. ..
Bringing the newly acquired parabola mirror, (you guys are going to have to tolerate this for awhile.....
), I took some shots...
I desire to utilize this mirror for meteor showers - capturing a very large chunk of sky and maybe image the brighter ones. I will attempt this for the Perseid's in August.
Early morning observation sessions bring beautiful sunrises...
Bill and I broke down the site, enjoying the great sunrise and sharing stories..
This Water intake crib would make a nice observation site...
With the great Chicago skyline as our backdrop, this session was over...
Even though we did not get a good look at Comet McNaught, it was a nice time out - but one of the shortest sessions on record. We will attempt more Comet hunting sessions on the next clear sky opportunities. But, this comet is fizzling out, unless it outgasses some as it approaches the Sun some more.
