Last night was a rare one here in NE TN -- skies were clear, cold, and
steady, 24 deg, light wind -- stars were not twinkling at all. As the moon
slid down to the west, I pulled out my XT-8, found Rigel, and swept to the
west and -- jackpot -- there was comet Machholz -- a fuzzy blob, no
discernible tail but the head was clearly bright and dense. As I looked
longer and longer I determined that the fuzzy part did extend farther in one
direction than the other. Comet looked good at three mags -- 38X (32mm TV
Plossl), 67X (18mm Meade SWA), and 171X (7mm Nagler).

Moved over to Orion, put in a nebula filter and spent 15 minutes staring at
M48 -- very nice.

Switched to my cheapie 40mm 2-inch EP and checked out Pleiades -- sparkling.

Hauled everything back into the garage and headed inside for two fingers of
17-year-old Lahproaig.

Hope to repeat tonight -- except I'll close out the evening with two fingers
of Dalwhinnie.

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Joe S.