Comet Machholtz

Greetings

Starry Night Enthusiast is showing Comet Machholtz as a very prominent night
sky object with a dramatic tail. I couldn't even find the thing last night
under seeing of 7/10. Tonight looks like a 9/10 maybe a 10! Assuming power
of 100 in my MK-67 (6" Mak), what can I expect to see?

Thanks for the help as usual,

Doink

Hi Doink,

I've been finding comet Machholtz from home fairly easily in 10x42=20
binoculars. Last sighting was Monday night with a bright moon in=20
the sky. I haven't seen a tail yet. I hope to view the comet in a=20
couple weeks from a darksky location.

-Florian

Hello,

Comet Machholtz was easily seen with the moon at 20 degrees above the
horizon last night from my back yard in South East Oz.

It is easily found if you know where to look. Last night it was in the
constellation of Caelum right next to the border of Lepus. If you draw a
line from Mu Lepus to Eps Lepus the comet is the same distance away
South. In my binos it appears as a fuzzy ball with no tail obvious.

Regards, Frank Hunter.

OK. Then I'm sure I found it. The moon was extremely bright here last
night. I looked where it should have been and did find a spot there. I
used only 15x70 binos...I've never looked at a comet before and wasn't sure
if I should a tail...

Doink


"Astrograndpa" nospam wrote in message
...
Hello,

Comet Machholtz was easily seen with the moon at 20 degrees above the
horizon last night from my back yard in South East Oz.

It is easily found if you know where to look. Last night it was in the
constellation of Caelum right next to the border of Lepus. If you draw a
line from Mu Lepus to Eps Lepus the comet is the same distance away South.
In my binos it appears as a fuzzy ball with no tail obvious.

Regards, Frank Hunter.

"Astrograndpa" nospam wrote in message
...
Hello,

Comet Machholtz was easily seen with the moon at 20 degrees above the
horizon last night from my back yard in South East Oz.

It is easily found if you know where to look. Last night it was in the
constellation of Caelum right next to the border of Lepus. If you draw a
line from Mu Lepus to Eps Lepus the comet is the same distance away South.
In my binos it appears as a fuzzy ball with no tail obvious.

Regards, Frank Hunter.

I wanted to thank you for your easy finding instructions. I fired up
SkyTools, downloaded the current comet data, and Machholtz was right on the
chart where you indicated. I then went out with my 15x70's and located it.
An easier feat than expected, considering that this location in my sky is
the least optimal, being that it is down into the light dome of the local
state prison.

I have my 15x70's on a light duty Slik tripod, with a Celestron altazimuth
slow motion control adapter (the expensive one). This combination works
spectacularly for objects below 40 degrees in altitude, and comets are
exactly the purpose for which this setup was assembled.

Once an object is targeted, you simply adjust the altazimuth position using
the two slow motion control knobs. Very nice. I almost sold this device
because it didn't seem to get a lot of use before I put it into this
configuration. Originally I bought it for my ST80, but it is a much better
accessory for the binoculars. The ST80 deserves a better mount than a light
duty photographic tripod, being that it is capable of well over 80x for
"achromat targets". To that end, I acquired a Universal Astronomics UniStar
Light Deluxe.

After succesfully observing the comet with the 15x70's, I was inspired to
take out my newly acquired Celstron/Vixen 102ED F9 refractor to get a
"better" look. Not wanting to haul out the GP mount in the middle of the
night for a 20 minute look around, I quickly tried the scope on my Unistar
Light Deluxe, which I have adapted to an SVP tripod.

This combination turns to work very well. The Vixen OTA is only 8 lbs, and
although it is around 40 inches long, the natural balance point is very well
positioned near the center of its length. This facilitates good control over
torque related vibrations. I'm not claiming this is rock stable by any
stretch, but for powers up to 100x, it is certainly functional. I've kind of
concluded that there's nothing like a 102F9 ED doublet on a lightweight and
portable altazimuth mount for a quick look around the sky, except maybe a
102F6 ED triplet ;-).

While I was in the area, I also checked out M41, M42/Trap, M43, and M79.
This covered what I thought to be a good range of objects to test a 4"
aperture scope, with M79 being a challenge object given the level of light
pollution in that area of the sky. All of these objects were easily found,
and the star images were superb where resolved. M41 revealed a smattering of
stars near the red end of the spectra, which I hadn't noticed before in
other scopes. I will need to get the 12.5" Meade Dob out for a comparison
look, now that I am conscious of the red star element.

The best accolade I can give the ED refractor, is the ease with which it
shows double stars at low power. In particular there's a nice double star in
the area south of M42, with one component being much brighter than the
other. At first, I thought it might be astigmatism in my eye with the 2.7mm
exit pupil of the 24mm Panoptic, but tweaking focus in, through, out, and
back again found the sweet spot, and the fact that this was indeed a double
became obvious.

Anyway, it was good to get outside and poke around. It's been a while. When
I stepped outside at 11PM, the back end of the final cloud bank of a storm
system, was literally just blowing out of view to the east. An hour earlier
it was raining like heck.

Stephen Paul
Shirley, MA

FYI, Don's last name is spelled Machholz. (Heaven knows I have spelled it
about a thousand ways myself! I always want to put a "t" in it and that
double "h" throws me all the time.) He signs his emails "Don Machholz".
(His last name is almost as bad to spell as mine! LOL)

Dawn Baird-Chleborad
www.astronerds.com


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Greetings

Starry Night Enthusiast is showing Comet Machholtz as a very prominent
night
sky object with a dramatic tail. I couldn't even find the thing last
night
under seeing of 7/10. Tonight looks like a 9/10 maybe a 10! Assuming
power
of 100 in my MK-67 (6" Mak), what can I expect to see?

Thanks for the help as usual,

Doink

"Astrograndpa" nospam wrote in message
...
Hello,

Comet Machholtz was easily seen with the moon at 20 degrees above the
horizon last night from my back yard in South East Oz.

It is easily found if you know where to look. Last night it was in the
constellation of Caelum right next to the border of Lepus. If you draw a
line from Mu Lepus to Eps Lepus the comet is the same distance away South.
In my binos it appears as a fuzzy ball with no tail obvious.

Regards, Frank Hunter.

I tried to look at this comet last night at 2300 after reading these posts
but got beaten by the viscious mozzies. I will try again tonight with some
insect repellant. It should be at the zenth at that time.


--
Terry B
Moree

Thanks Dawn! Machholz...got it.

Doink

"Dawn Baird-Chleborad" wrote in message
...
FYI, Don's last name is spelled Machholz. (Heaven knows I have spelled it
about a thousand ways myself! I always want to put a "t" in it and that
double "h" throws me all the time.) He signs his emails "Don Machholz".
(His last name is almost as bad to spell as mine! LOL)

Dawn Baird-Chleborad
www.astronerds.com


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Greetings

Starry Night Enthusiast is showing Comet Machholtz as a very prominent
night
sky object with a dramatic tail. I couldn't even find the thing last
night
under seeing of 7/10. Tonight looks like a 9/10 maybe a 10! Assuming
power
of 100 in my MK-67 (6" Mak), what can I expect to see?

Thanks for the help as usual,

Doink