firstly, a big thank you to Joe ( @OzEclipse ) for his hospitality and 3 wonderful nights
of observing after several months of limited opportunity due to poor weather. Please read Joe's report if you have
not already as it gives an excellent account of the this long weekend.
I will focus on our observation of comet 144P Kushida, with a little more detail. We both viewed the
comet through Joe's 18"
not overly bright; so much so that I thought that I might have difficulty locating and perhaps
event observing it in the 10" scope.
However, I need not have been concerned. The comet appeared to be a diffuse reasonably large
round such object of even value. It was certainly dim, with low contrast to the surrounding dark
background (thanks to dark skies and nice optics). I did not detect a brighter core, though it was
clear in the image that I took with my refractor at the same time. I have attached a "simulated"
and no doubt the calibration of your monitor will affect the representation too.
Now to finding the comet. Quite a task With a fully manual
as opposed to using the Nexus push-to on the 18" :-) The 10" is very light weight and finely balanced
and only supports the use of a Rigel finder. Unfortunately, with the light loss through the finder, the
dimest stars that I seem to be able to identify are about 4th magnitude in a dark sky (and 3rd mag at
home on the urban fringe).
The comet was some 3+ degrees from the nearest 4th mag star. My method, which works for brighter
objects (especially near bright stars) truly tested me to the limits of my ability. I looked up the comet's
location in Sky Safari (which I have configured to match the finder's rings), and then step out a multiple
of one/other ring in the approximate direction, which is follows by a quick search pattern.
In this case, the comet was clearly going to be too dim to find via search pattern. I did however,
notice in SS that it was in the field of view of 3 slightly relatively brighter stars forming a line, with an
8th mag star (very bright in the scope) also in the
search, and behold, there was the comet (right where SS had it plotted). It took multiple attempts
and I also cross referenced with Joe's
I know there are some options to help assist with sky navigation (e.g. Geoptik Naidirus) and may
someday invest in a tool. This would be a big help in my heavy
I am enjoying star hopping. I do quite well using the main scope
to follow but struggle when the star hops are hard to follow - more experience required.
If you have made it this far, I hope that I have not bored you too much. I can "rabbit on" a bit when I
get started.
I will also add a piece to the telescope section in the near future. The 10" is quite interesting and
somewhat unique, with an interesting history.
Thanks, Phil
