Equipment:
Photographic: Vixen VC200L
Visual:
=> 6"f7 newtonian with Denkmeier D21 eyepiece 50X, 1.3 degrees TFOV. Exit pupil = 3mm
=> Orion Mini Giant 9x63mm binoculars
Another clear night! Few mid-level clouds down in the south and some very thin high cloud visible at sunset roughly where the comet will be. This is my 11th more or less totally clear night out of the last 13.
Picked up the comet in binoculars and finder at 9:25 pm local time, or 10:25 UT, 45 mins before the end of astronomical twilight. Tail became apparent in binoculars and in the 6"f7 newt quite early. Tail looks brighter and longer than last night. When it became fully dark, using 9x63 Orion mini giants, I could observe some 9 degrees of tail. The first 6 degrees very obvious. The last 1-2 degree of the 9 was very faint.
Magnitude estimate:
Due to the low altitude, I am only using comparison stars of equal altitude.
The comet is conveniently located next to
iota Pis Aus Mv= 4.34
6 Pis Aus Mv= 5.96
7 Pis Aus Mv= 6.09
theta Pis Aus Mv=5.00
Using the in-out estimation method, I put Leonard 1/4-1/3 of the way between iota and 6 & 7 Pis Aus. This places it at between 4.7 and 4.9. It did seem very close but slightly brighter than 5.0 magnitude theta Pis Aus which agrees with the previous estimate. The comet nucleus/
In the newt, tail streamers/ion tail structure and streamers visible in the photo are easily visible if delicate to the visual observer just behind the
Photo: HDR image of Leonard, Jan 1, 2022.
Well look at that, anyway I probably will be writing 2022 on checks and other paperwork for awhile.