I ran out a little after 10:00 with my old C8 to get a look at Comet
Garradd's close approach to M71... It was a pretty clear night,
although kind of humid, and I had to wait for the lights of the local
high school football game to my north to turn off. This was an easy
starhop, right under Sagitta. After setting up, I had both the comet
and the globular cluster in the same low power field within a minute
or two... This was cool...! The pair of fuzzies were fun to
compare... M71 easily breaking up into stardust, with Comet Garradd
staying misty with a condensed nucleus. The comet's tail seemed to
flare out rather broadly toward the cluster, maybe favoring the
western side just a bit. I had absolutely no dark adaption, and the
busy background of the Milky Way tended to visually confuse things
just a bit for me... I have an eyepiece turret on my C8, and I tend
to flip around quite a bit... Both objects took magnification
well... My 12mm eyepiece was my high power tonight at 160x... At
that magnification I could still fit the comet and half of M71 into my
field of view! With a 40mm eyepiece, (50x) both objects took center
stage with the star-studded northern Milky Way background all around
them. Well worth the look!
I occasionally backed away for a look at the constellations, (my
first celestial love,) and once hopped up for a look at the Dumbbell
Nebula... The night wasn't good for detail, but it seemed to be
pretty transparent. I saw little mottling in the brighter part of the
nebula, but the dimmer sides flared out clearly to give it an obvious
"football" shape. (OK, an "American" football...)
I whipped back down again to the Garradd - M71 pair, and tried to
freeze it in my mind for a few minutes... I dragged my scope back in
and made a quick, crude, sketch. It'll be fun to compare this to the
photographs that come out of this thing...
Now I've gotta go down and put my scope to bed...
Marty