Hi,
Made a visual observation and imaged Comet Garrard tonight.
Location Penwortham South Australia.
Date 14/09/2011 Time 09.50 UT
Telesope 200mm equatorial reflector F6
Magnification 75x
Estimated mag 8.2 defocus method, using GSC mags guide 7.
DC(dergree of codensation) 4-5
Diam 2.5 x 4 arc minutes.
Also visible in 80mm finder.
The comets DC seems a little less from previous observations.
CCD image. North to bottom.
SAC7 CCD modified with home made focal reducer on 200mm F6 reflector
Image size 22..81 x 17.28 arc minutes.
10 x 10 second images stacked unprocessed.
Time 10.05 UT.
He's invisable even under my dark skies, before moon rise. So much smoke from burn offs in the area.
I'm relying on everyone else to keep me updated.
Thanks for the report.
Yay....happy to report the fuzzball was in my Galaxsee, a little after 8.30PM, before the moon rose. Took some work to find it - just near 110Her and a faint double, with HIP92032 on the opposite side, and Her111 just out of the view. Sky was a bit murky, with the clearing clouds, and a dewey feel to the atmosphere.
Kids weren't all that thrilled (tough judges....) probably not seeing a tail made them a bit less enthusiastic about the faint smudge in the finder. Whatever, a comet's a comet - and look forward to it brightening in the coming months.
Love to see it under dark skies, though!!!
I take my hat off to you! Observing from light polluted sky's would drive me nuts.
Oh yeah, kids don't seem to be exited about astronomy, until they get older. Both of mine were like that until they were in their twenties.