Observation report from tassie - comets and things

[davidpretorius]

Hi,

got up at 4am for jupiter and for the first time in weeks no high clouds. It was very nippy around 6 degrees.

Basically, before my laptop spoilt the dark adaption, i was treated to the milky way and the centre bulge! As I am still in my first year, the return of some early familiar objects (albeit upside down) was great.

The seeing started out at 4/10 and then improved to 7/10 for jupiter avis.

Got the free binos out and found the two stars that were right next to the comet below venus and there was a small smudge. Swung the scope around from jupiter and even thru the finder scope you can tell that this object is not a star. at 25mm, i was treated to a tail thru averted vision and also a bright core.

Tried the toucam at prime focus, no go!

So I have seen my first comet thru a scope and am very happy!

[asimov (John)]

Very good mate! I've seen a couple of comets in my time, but I must get the binos out for this one.

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Congrats on your first scope-viewed comet, Dave. I was up between 3 and 6 too. I was disappointed: I couldn't tell whether the image was moving at high mag because of the EP (unlikely), the motor, or high altitude moisture. I think it was the latter.

Cheers,

Brian.