Comet McNaught Dimming?

I've been following this comet during the daytime the last few days with a
pair of 7x50 and 8 x 24 binoculars, but after easy sightings about 1 pm
today from San Diego, I could not find it at 3 pm or 5 pm. Has something
happened to it, or was I just not quite looking in the right place? The
atmospheric transparency did not seem to change, but I did have a little
trouble finding a suitable tree or house to block the sun in the afternoon
sightings.

Don

I'm betting you just lost it but I'm checking SOHO right now.

Don Bruns wrote:
I've been following this comet during the daytime the last few days with a
pair of 7x50 and 8 x 24 binoculars, but after easy sightings about 1 pm
today from San Diego, I could not find it at 3 pm or 5 pm. Has something
happened to it, or was I just not quite looking in the right place? The
atmospheric transparency did not seem to change, but I did have a little
trouble finding a suitable tree or house to block the sun in the afternoon
sightings.

Don

Hi Don,

Similar here in Phoenix, but "dimming" didn't occur to me. At 1:20
local (12:20 for you) using 8x25 binos, the comet was bright, with a
bright tail, wide (30-40 d) and 5x as long as the nucleus was wide.

I was enthused so I got out my 8" LX200. Being In no hurry, I acquired
the comet at about 3:00. I started with a 40mm ep (50x) and was
disappointed. The nucleus was bright but the tail was very wide (90+
d), stubby, and very faint.

I changed ep's at about 10 min intervals gradually increasing power. By
the time (~4:00) I got to about 200x the tail was not visible, but the
nucleus still had proper form (not quite round). By 4:30 and 400x the
comet was no different than a slightly fuzzy bright Sirius.

I had thought that the increasing powers would increase contrast and
the tail would fill the entire view. I was very disappointed and
figured I had the optics rule backwards and I put everything away.

Tomorrow will tell.

Rob




..

Do you think it might be still visible on Tuesday? That's when it's
supposed to clear here in the east.

Do you think it might be still visible on Tuesday? That's when it's
supposed to clear here in the east.

Do you think it might be still visible on Tuesday? That's when it's
supposed to clear here in the east.

Sorry, I don't know why this went triplicate...

No trouble seeing the comet last nite just after sunset with my 15X70s

I could not see it tonite.

"Don Bruns" wrote in message
.. .
I've been following this comet during the daytime the last few days with a
pair of 7x50 and 8 x 24 binoculars, but after easy sightings about 1 pm
today from San Diego, I could not find it at 3 pm or 5 pm. Has something
happened to it, or was I just not quite looking in the right place? The
atmospheric transparency did not seem to change, but I did have a little
trouble finding a suitable tree or house to block the sun in the afternoon
sightings.

Don

I viewed the comet again last night after sunset (after trying
unsuccessfully mid-afternoon to see it in daylight).

The brightness looked similar to last night, though perhaps slightly less...

Didn't get much time to view it, though... It was further south than I
expected, so I had a little difficulty finding it because I was looking a
bit too far north, and it was behind some palm trees. Once I figured that
it may be further south than I had anticipated, and moved the binos and
tripod to get the trees partially out of the way, I found it nicely framed
between the trunks of two tall palm trees some distance down the street, and
below their crowns... Watched it for a couple minutes, and because it would
set soon, I ran to the porch to get the digital camera of that nicely framed
shot. But in just the minute I was gone, so was the comet. So, no photos
last night, though I managed quite a few the previous night...

I'm located northwest of Phoenix...

--
Jan Owen

To reach me directly, remove the Z, if one appears in my e-mail address...
Latitude: 33.6
Longitude: -112.3
http://community.webshots.com/user/janowen21

Patrick Edward Murray wrote:
Do you think it might be still visible on Tuesday? That's when it's
supposed to clear here in the east.

At 34d north latitude the comet will be 3d above the hz at sunset
today. 2d above hz tomorrow sunset.

Farther north lats are worse. N hemisphere the comet basicly above hz
only during the day from now on. Now if you are heading for "Down
Under", the best nights are coming up quick!