Comet Machholtz, unusal?

Hi:

Dec.30/31, 2004 - 2345 UT. 12cm, f/8.3, 100cm fl refractor
at 40x and 67x. Observed from balcony in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
Yep, there was light pollution! Seeing was good say 4/5. Sky
a tad bright limiting mag about 4.5.

First saw comet at 5:45pm in my 10x50 binoculars. Ok,the comet's nucleus at 40x
looked like it had a "shell" around the main point. Say similar to a Airy Disk.
I could see it at 67x and it was faint. I used averted vision
also.

Anyone else see this "effect".

I also split a few doubles in Orion at 213x and Saturn looked nice! I also found
M1 at 40x.

Mike

I've seen that with other comets. I haven't seen it with this one.
The others I've seen, the shell looked like a shock wave defining
the head of the comet.

In article .com,
"Richard" wrote:

I've seen that with other comets. I haven't seen it with this one.
The others I've seen, the shell looked like a shock wave defining
the head of the comet.

As in Comet Hyakatake a few years back. Just beautiful.

Starry Skies,
Rich

Mike Boschat wrote:
Hi:

Dec.30/31, 2004 - 2345 UT. 12cm, f/8.3, 100cm fl refractor
at 40x and 67x. Observed from balcony in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
Yep, there was light pollution! Seeing was good say 4/5. Sky
a tad bright limiting mag about 4.5.

First saw comet at 5:45pm in my 10x50 binoculars. Ok,the comet's
nucleus at 40x looked like it had a "shell" around the main point. Say
similar to a Airy Disk.
I could see it at 67x and it was faint. I used averted vision
also.

Anyone else see this "effect".

Yes, in the 12.5" F4.8 reflector at 43x and 63x. I also was duly
impressed to see Machholz pass the nearby magnitude 9.2 star SAO 111482,
between 14:00-14:20 UT. That's a first for me.

Very cool.

Stephen Paul
Shirley, MA
42.5N 71.5W

Two Richards were saying
I've seen that with other comets. I
haven't seen it with this one. The others
I've seen, the shell looked like a shock
wave defining the head of the comet.


As in Comet Hyakatake a few years
back. Just beautiful.

It's my understanding that those "hood" looking things are usually due
to material being ejected from localized "jets" on the surface of the
comet being thrown ahead of the nucleus in a stream, sort of like a
pinwheel firework. I've only seen Machholz through binoculars so far,
but I sketched several layers of these ahead of Hale-Bopp.
Marty

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 20:05:44 -0400, Mike Boschat wrote:

Hi:

Dec.30/31, 2004 - 2345 UT. 12cm, f/8.3, 100cm fl refractor
at 40x and 67x. Observed from balcony in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
Yep, there was light pollution! Seeing was good say 4/5. Sky
a tad bright limiting mag about 4.5.

First saw comet at 5:45pm in my 10x50 binoculars. Ok,the comet's nucleus at 40x
looked like it had a "shell" around the main point. Say similar to a Airy Disk.
I could see it at 67x and it was faint. I used averted vision
also.

Anyone else see this "effect".


I've seen in with Hale-Bopp, it was realy pronounced. Interesting!

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:23:50 GMT, Richard DeLuca
wrote:

In article .com,
"Richard" wrote:

I've seen that with other comets. I haven't seen it with this one.
The others I've seen, the shell looked like a shock wave defining
the head of the comet.

As in Comet Hyakatake a few years back. Just beautiful.

Starry Skies,
Rich

Exactly! I remember it in my C8, it looked fascinating.
I kind of wondered why all the shots of the comet featured
the typical, burned out centre core. I never did see one
that featured a detailed look at the core structure.
-Rich