Re: Comet SWAN Obs. 29 Oct.



"Willie R. Meghar" wrote:

Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) from a dark (moonlit) Montana sky at 1:30 to
2:20 U.T. on 29 October, 2006:

Faintest star visible to naked eye near Polaris: magnitude 5.9. This
translates to a zenithal NELM of 6.0; but the sky was *a little*
brighter near the comet. The comet was visible to the naked eye; but
not easily. (Note that a little moonlight isn't *too* detrimental to
a clean, rural sky; particularly when the moon isn't too bright, is
some distance away, and is blocked from view by a building.)

My initial observation was with hand-held 20x80 binoculars; but a
drawing was made of the 8x42 binocular view so M13 could be included.

The comet was still a little brighter than M13 with a *slightly*
greenish coma. The coma was a little larger than M13.

The tail was quite faint now due to either a brighter sky, an
intrinsically fainter tail, or both.

I could trace the tail up to one degree eight minutes from the center
of the comet's coma. The tail was better in 20x80 binoculars, but was
also visible in 8x42 binoculars.

(My blog entry will most likely wait until tomorrow - after other
observations are made.)

Either saa has gotten significantly less active lately or I'm simply
not receiving many of the postings. I've been receiving approximately
50 postings in a 24 hour time period. I'm beginning to wonder if my
postings are making it beyond my ISP. At this rate, I think I'll wait
24 hours - give or take a little - before checking back in.

Willie R. Meghar
Observational Notes at:
http://meghar.blogspot.com/

message received - roger wilko! Your isp is working fine.



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