Re: Comet 73P fragment B splits in two


"David Nakamoto" <> wrote
......
Depends on your equipment. It's listed as 9th (?) mag for the brightest
fragments, but I suspect you'll see first the star-like nucleus with
perhaps the outline of the coma, and maybe the tail, depending on your
equipment and conditions.......

Both fragments B & C were easy in my 20-inch F/5 (26mm Nagler EP) from
mag 6 sky (my front yard in rural NY).........

Good report George. However, given that you had a big light bucket
working in very dark skies, your results won't reflect how hard this comet
might be to see from suburban skies and much smaller telescopes. As I
wrote, depends on your equipment, and I would add your seeing conditions.
Comets are very similar to spiral galaxies.......

Exactly Dave! I had a very good night. I was able to see all 4 members of
Hickson 44 (http://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/hick44.htm) that night (I
believe that NGC 3187 is a bit brighter than its cataloged mag 16). I would
think that only the brighter fragment of 73P would be visible in binoculars
or a scope smaller than 6 inches or so. On the previous night I was unable
to find it under poor transparency conditions. Hopefully this will change
dramatically over the next few weeks.

George N



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