Machholz under moonlight

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 12:59:53 +0000 (UTC), "Mark"
wrote:


"Roger Smith" wrote in message
...
In message , Tim Auton
wrote
(Maurice Gavin) wrote:

Was the comet a naked eye object under full moonlight this evening
nearing Taurus ??

Am I the only person in the known universe not to have seen Machholz
yet? Clouds, rain and festivities have conspired against me so far.

Probably not, I haven't seen it definitely though I did look at the area
for a while the other night with my bins but poor memory and lack of
knowledge of what should be where means that while I don't know that I
have seen it I might well have done but not recognised it.


For me, it just looked like a diffuse 'blob'with not much of a tail.

The tail was just visible visually when Machholz popped up over the
Southern horizon for most of the UK. However, since then I believe
it's faded (this is based on empirical evidence). Of course, this has
not been helped by the Moon that has been invading it's light space
for a while now.

After image processing, I believe that the next few days will, with
the Moon moving out of the picture, reveal a nice diffuse head and a
fine and structured tail.

--
Pete
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk
Home of the Lunar Parallax Demonstration Project