Home Forums RAC Main Forum General Discussion Observing tonight? Re: Observing tonight?

#11453
Dean Johnson
Participant

    Well done, Don!

    Steve and I got out there for 3 hours tonight. PANSTARRS was a tough find, even with a finder chart from Sky & Telescope. It took us from 8 p.m to 8:25 for me to find it. The Moon rose at 8:15, and then I finally spotted it at 8:25. Steve found it at 8:40. Now I know why the people from the Middle Ages described comets as a "Hairy Star". That is exactly what it looked like.

    In binoculars, it is faint, but does not look like a star, but it is SO CLOSE. I probably went across it 3 times before I finally nailed it. In Stuppo's excellent 20X80 Zhumell binocs, the coma is well defined. In my Celestron SCT at 50X it is diffuse and has a wide tail, but the color of it all is green. I could not pin down the star field it is in without a publication, because it is still well down in the western horizon.

    A wonderful look at Moonrise. Jupiter has all 4 moons showing plus a background star looking like a "wannabe" moon. GRS visible.  Plus, it wasn't as cold! AGNFA!