Comet Lulin Update!
Filled with hope and Chock Full O’ Nuts, I headed out. It was 2:30 AM. The Moon shone brightly. I needed to put a tree trunk between the Moon and the Great Red Tube. Easy that.
There I was. At first the cold is bracing or invigorating. Then once an average amateur astronomer sits for awhile, the cold is cold. Brrrrr! Yet again I forgot to wear two pairs of socks and sensible shoes as opposed to one pair of socks and deck shoes. So after fooling around in Ursa Major for awhile, I had to go put some more clothes on my feet.
There is no urgency until Moon goes down. Finally Moon went down. After Moon went down I was able to determine that M101 is totally invisible. That took awhile. Then, just for the heck of it, I also determined that M109 is also completely invisible. However, M51 is barely visible, yet suffers no magnification. I may espy M51 in the 30mm Ultima, but not the 20mm TV. Weird!
Lots of time passed during these observations. As usual, naked objects in the Big Bear proved elusive or invisible. So I decided to try Leo the Lion. To check on seeing conditions I quickly determined that M65 and M66 were visible. However, NGC 3628 is not visible. I interpreted this information to mean that seeing was about as good as it gets in these parts.
Having determined that seeing was fairly OK, I set out to find the rest of the Messier naked objects in Leo the Lion. The various parts of Leo are, by this time, situated so that his head is facing west and his butt is facing east. Rho Leo, Leo’s tummy star, is naked eye, a mercy.
53 and 52 Leo almost fit in the finder. All the naked Messier objects lie between these twain stars. Going north from 53 I soon espy a fuzzy. But alas, I am not sure which fuzzy. Going up some more I soon espy two fuzzies very close together near a bright star. I need another fuzzy. Alas. There is no other fuzzy.
Twice more I discern the original fuzzy and the close together fuzzies. But there is no other fuzzy to be espied. Dern it! The two close together fuzzies near the bright star have to be M105 and associate. But what’s the other one? I am of the opinion that the other one is M96. Oh well. Try, try again.
It may be darkest before the dawn. Unlikely that. It may be coldest before the dawn.
By 5 AM, Zuben El Genubi and Zuben Esch Amali are glowing feebly in the horizon murk. Anon, Graffias and associates of the long invisible Scorpion appear. Yes. The Scorpion is back.
Naturally I needed to look for Comet Lulin. Comet Lulin should be just east of 47 Libra. But Comet Lulin is invisible. Dern it. I really do not understand how come Comet Lulin is invisible this morning. Yet Comet Lulin is totally invisible in binocular, finder and scope. But I shall find out why Comet Lulin is invisible. Oh yes. I shall find out.
Now I am fixing to be grumpy the rest of the day.
There I was. At first the cold is bracing or invigorating. Then once an average amateur astronomer sits for awhile, the cold is cold. Brrrrr! Yet again I forgot to wear two pairs of socks and sensible shoes as opposed to one pair of socks and deck shoes. So after fooling around in Ursa Major for awhile, I had to go put some more clothes on my feet.
There is no urgency until Moon goes down. Finally Moon went down. After Moon went down I was able to determine that M101 is totally invisible. That took awhile. Then, just for the heck of it, I also determined that M109 is also completely invisible. However, M51 is barely visible, yet suffers no magnification. I may espy M51 in the 30mm Ultima, but not the 20mm TV. Weird!
Lots of time passed during these observations. As usual, naked objects in the Big Bear proved elusive or invisible. So I decided to try Leo the Lion. To check on seeing conditions I quickly determined that M65 and M66 were visible. However, NGC 3628 is not visible. I interpreted this information to mean that seeing was about as good as it gets in these parts.
Having determined that seeing was fairly OK, I set out to find the rest of the Messier naked objects in Leo the Lion. The various parts of Leo are, by this time, situated so that his head is facing west and his butt is facing east. Rho Leo, Leo’s tummy star, is naked eye, a mercy.
53 and 52 Leo almost fit in the finder. All the naked Messier objects lie between these twain stars. Going north from 53 I soon espy a fuzzy. But alas, I am not sure which fuzzy. Going up some more I soon espy two fuzzies very close together near a bright star. I need another fuzzy. Alas. There is no other fuzzy.
Twice more I discern the original fuzzy and the close together fuzzies. But there is no other fuzzy to be espied. Dern it! The two close together fuzzies near the bright star have to be M105 and associate. But what’s the other one? I am of the opinion that the other one is M96. Oh well. Try, try again.
It may be darkest before the dawn. Unlikely that. It may be coldest before the dawn.
By 5 AM, Zuben El Genubi and Zuben Esch Amali are glowing feebly in the horizon murk. Anon, Graffias and associates of the long invisible Scorpion appear. Yes. The Scorpion is back.
Naturally I needed to look for Comet Lulin. Comet Lulin should be just east of 47 Libra. But Comet Lulin is invisible. Dern it. I really do not understand how come Comet Lulin is invisible this morning. Yet Comet Lulin is totally invisible in binocular, finder and scope. But I shall find out why Comet Lulin is invisible. Oh yes. I shall find out.
Now I am fixing to be grumpy the rest of the day.
posted by ray pistrum at Wednesday, January 07, 2009
2 Comments:
I've got a google alert on comet Lulin and your blog popped up; I'm another pagan/druid/astrologer/astronomer, but without a telescope, so I won't be up early (uk) to catch a peep untill much later in January.. or maybe just virtually observe in StaryNight!
BB
Tim
Hello Tim. A Welcome Before You.
I may have been expecting an easier time of it with Comet Lulin than the situation merited. Apparently it is around mag. 8.5 right now. Plus, it is fairly diffuse and in a very bad part of the sky. I may have overlooked it.
The best time here may be around January 22nd as the Moon is fixing to start causing trouble during early morning.
Crumby
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