Comet Swan
The
November 22nd, 2006
Black River Astronomical Society
Impromptu Star
Party
I'd like to thank John R
for inviting us all out to last night's
impromptu Star Party. The skies were
fabulous.
The milky way and even the dark rift were
easily visible. The sky was steady and seeing was superb.
In
addition to
John & I, Tim H, Lee L, Dave G and Randy B showed up,
and we thoroughly
enjoyed the frigid
November skies until even the bravest of
us finally gave in to the
cold and called it a night at about 11pm.
Comet Swan
looked very nice in John's 10". Working together, we opened up the
Nielson Observatory,
set up a
digital camera (Canon 30D w/75-300mm lens) on the 14" Celestron and
captured
the
following
image of this little emerald jewel minutes
before it sunk into the side of the building and oblivion..........
Here's
a blowup of the Comet. We were all surprised at the large apparent size
and brightness of the
comet. It was a bright emerald
green and appeared somewhat oblong and rectangular in shape.
My
2 clear nights in October, 2006
October 8-9th, 2006. 2 nights off and
predicted clear skies !
2 comets in the sky!
2 passes of the ISS!
This promised to be a spectacular observing session.
First, the ISS. Recently NASA added additional solar panels to the ISS
and reports stated that passovers
would be really spectacular. AND THEY WERE !!!
Here's the proof. On the 8th ISS passed thru the Big Dipper at 6:13am
On the 9th ISS passed slowly across the northern horizon at 6:45am
And lastly, my meager images of Comet Swan.
A wide angle view. Click to enlarge.
Here's a shot of yours truly set up at Wellington, Ohio
enjoying a crisp autumn night and a cup of coffee.
Notes:
My home brewed power supply* really worked well.
*(see article elsewhere on this site.)
The first night was extremely wet. The SCT was practically useless.
I used the hair dryer on it every 1/2 hour throughout the night.
I used the hair dryer twice on the newtonian secondary.
The primary didn't get wet at all !
At the end of the first night the battery had only dropped to 11.8
volts.
At the end of the second, dryer night the battery only dropped to 12.4
volts.