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.