Northern Cross Observatory News by Doug Bock

Did you see the comet?

Observations taken of Hale Bopp by local astronomers
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Astro-photos

Doug,

Last night Anne,Phil and I went out to the scenic overlook between Caberfae and Harrietta
and WOW! I thought I had a great view from home but last night really
demonstrated the importance of dark-site viewing. 8:00-9:00 pm two distinct and bright
tails readily naked-eye visible and tail lengths easily 20-25 deg. I couldn't quite
get the radio tower out of most of my photos, and after the 1/4 mile trek to the
observation platform(it's a seasonal road...unplowed by the road commission) I discovered,
much to my chagrin, that the best pictures could be had within 25 ft of my van.
The longest tails that I observed from my house were 8 deg at best, so this was really
worth the drive. Besides, it was a relatively warm night and Phil had a good time running
around in the dark with the Maglight.

Rich Brenz --- Editorial note: Rich lives in Cadillac and is a WAS member. Date: 4/2/97

Doug, since nobody has updated your logbook about Hale-Bopp for a week or so,
decided to throw in my recent observations. Today is the 20th. For the past four
days I've had pretty clear skies from Chesterfield. Yesterday Hale-Bopp was a
gem. Its coma is huge. It looks like a big Jupiter; a flattened pumpkin of
light. In my 10 x 70s, the tail is very pronounced. I estimated it to be 3 to 6
degrees long, depending on the day. Yesterday it was about 5 degrees - a far cry
from Hyakutake. Let's hope that it grows as it gets higher in the sky. I've
noticed that it's setting latter and latter. Last night it went down around 9.
It's neat to see the comet when clouds rush by - it gives the impression that
it's really flying!! Anyway, can't wait for my 2415 film to arrive in the mail.

Mark_Renusch

To all interested Observers:

Comet H-B was observed in the UM McMath 24" telescope at 125x on the evening
of March 12th. A "complete spiral ring" was observed. The nucleus was
positioned off center with the ring inside the jet noticably brighter. On
Wens morn the ring had broken away and taken on a "swept back" look, as
viewed in a 13" neutonian at 220x and 50x.

Christopher Sarnecki
University Lowbrow Astronomers

Just thought I would add my two cents worth
Saw Hale Bopp yesterday evening from Novi, Mi (mall city)
At about 7:30 it was about 20 degrees above the horizon in the NW
It was the most prominent thing in the sky in that direction
Watched it until about 8:20 when it was less than 5 degrees above the horizon.

Saw it again this morning in the North East (from the comfort of my bedroom)
It is a very bright comet !!

Jim Abshier

Sleepy hello to all,

Fred Schebor and I were at Peach Mountain this morning doing some
piggyback photography of Hale-Bopp. It sure looks a lot better from a
semi-dark site than from my front/back yard! I could see twice as
much tail (4 to 5 degrees naked eye, 5 to 6 in 10x50s) - very broad,
with a prominent dark lane separating the broader dust tail on the
south side and narrower ion/gas tail on the north.

While our shutters were open, we examined the nucleus and coma in the
8 inch Cave reflector. The inner, south pointing jet is still curling
clockwise from the brilliant nucleus. The concentric rings were still
apparent, but now they appear to be extending into the faint
(northeast) side of the coma as well, now looking more like bow shocks
extending almost 180 degrees. Can anyone else confirm this, or have
they appeared like this all along and I'm just now seeing more because
of the larger aperture (8" vs. 6") and darker background?

We gotta do something about those trees! We only had about 20 minutes
from the time the comet cleared them and the start of twilight. Oh,
yeah, we also need to enforce a "no fly zone" within a 50 mile radius
of Peach Mountain (or maybe we can just tell everyone those are meteor
trails on our slides).

Happy observing!

Doug Scobel

Don't mean to trivialize HB, but I saw it last night @~7:40 and took some photos from the Cadillac water tower area.
Couldn't see the darn thing very well from my house though.
Set up the scope anyway and arose to another magnificent HB show @4:00am.
Took lots of pix. If Murphy's law prevails, something should turn out.

One observation from this am:
The tail doesn"t appear quite as condensed and bright as in the past.
I also saw lots of "blinking" galaxies(O.K....maybe two observations...)--
the darn things blinked out every time my neighbors sodium blinked on.
(It was supposed to be turned off...should I tell him there's a problem or
should I hope for the best that it will breakdown completely?)

Cloudy tonight 8~{

Rich Brenz

March 11, 1997

Hey, folks,

With all the hoopla about Hale-Bopp, don't forget about Mars. Besides
being at opposition on the 17th, Mars will be presenting its "best
side" towards us through about the first week in April - lots of
features should be visible (if they are not obscured by dust storms).

Doug Scobel

March 11, 1997

Well I finally got film in the camera and started taking what I hope will be
pictures of the comet.
It looked pretty good tonight,but I still think it looks better in the
morning.

On the subject of Scopes ................I DID IT ! ! !

I now own a 10 " Odyssey.......Oh Boy.

See you later.....................Got to check out the new toy.

Till we meet again.......................Happy Trails To You..............&
Clear Skies

Rick Kovari

Hi Doug, I'm tired from one long weekend of Boppin ...did I already
send you an image??? If not, attached is a pic I took from EMU's Fish
Lake via our 5.5" Celestron Schmidt camera piggybacked on my C11 on Tech
Pan film, 4 minutes exp., 3/9/97 4:35am. Dave Donofrio and Bob Justin
were among the 41 folks we had up there over the weekend....marvelous
views, clear all of Saturday night (in spite of the weather forecasts).
Happy Boppin to you too.... Norbert

March 11, 1997

Well did you see it this morning ????

Saw it at 5:30 AM and it was totally awesome dude.

P.S. ...............It looked good too.

It was almost bright enough to show up with my video camera.
Got to load some film in the 35mm !!!

Rick Kovari

Feb. 24, 1997

Well, you guys shamed me into it. I set the alarm for 5:00 this
morning and got up to observe and sketch (yes, I said sketch) comet
Hale-Bopp. Very nice. At 38x, in my 6 inch f/8, there is a broad fan
pointing southeast, emanating from a brilliant, star-like nucleus,
apparently "feeding" the parabolic hood. The broader, brighter dust
tail is to the south side of the comet's axis; the narrower, fainter
ion tail is to the north. At 174x, I could see a small, bright jet
pointing south from the nucleus, and a detached condensation just east
of the nucleus. I probably could have seen more with my 13", but it's
all apart right now - bad timing );

In 10x50 binoculars, I could see about 3 degrees of dust tail, and
about 2 degrees of ion tail, even with the nearly full moon and
considerable light pollution to the east. Not bad for being a month
before perihelion.

I estimated it to be just slightly fainter than Deneb, by maybe a
quarter of a magnitude. That would put it at about magnitude +1.5.

Did either of you look at it? What were your impressions? I made two
sketches, one at low power and one at high power. If either of you
sketched as well I'd like to see them.

That's all for now.

Doug Scobel

Hi Doug,
Yes - I saw the comet from my back yard, between the neighbors
tree branches, and it thought it was pretty bright. The comets tail
from my house - using 10 X 50's was about 1/2 moon. I will be in
Itally from March 2nd - 17th, and plan to do some observing on the
beach there. I am still not sure if I'm going to take along my Meade
MTX also - so I can photograph the comet from there.

See You When I Get Back!

Ben Tolbert

I SAW IT........I SAW IT ! ! ! !

I DID ........I DID ! ! ! !

( * * )
*
()
wow
Rick Kovari

Doug --

The comet is magnificient! I've seen it the last two mornings. What a
treat to have two great-looking comets two years in a row!

-- Doug

--
_ _ _ _ _ _ | "sign" wave | _ _
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ | Douglas E. Goudie | / \ / \
\_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_| aa128@detroit.freenet.org |_/ \_/

Doug,

I've tried three times to view the comet and all three times we've had clear
skies all night except at the times I've risen early. I'll keep trying though.
We have had some splendidly clear nights with temps in the -10--20 range.
Needless to say, the LX200 drive motors can be quite finicky at those temps.

Rich Brenz

Doug,

I wasn't up in time this morning, but did observe it through my 7 x
50 binoculars on Monday morning and watched it fade in the twilight
yesterday morning through my f6.0 8-inch dob with a 40mm eyepiece.
This all from my house, on the south side of light polluted Ann
Arbor. In fact on Monday, my wife and I were observing through a
second story window of our house, so our feet and noses didn't get
cold like mine did yesterday. It sure is spectacular, even from
my far from dark site and I was wondering what the magnitude is now.
Thanks for your estimate.

Hey, I saw it Monday and Tuesday morning -- I agree with your magnitude
assessment. I estimated it as about equal to Deneb, a bit dimmer than
Vega, so Mag. 1. Amazing how well we can see the comet given that the full
moon was in the sky. We are in for a great show. I've got all sorts of
info on the door of my office in the Biostatistics department.

Take care,

Jonathan

*******************************************************************************
Jonathan Raz Telephone: (313) 936-1009
Department of Biostatistics FAX: (313) 763-2215
School of Public Health Email: jonraz@umich.edu
University of Michigan Home page: http://www.sph.umich.edu/~jonraz
1420 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029
*******************************************************************************

Yes, I did. Wasn't it fabulous? I was fortunate enough to see it both
monday and tuesday morning. Hopefully the trend will continue.

Clear Skys

Steve Pokorny

I saw it three mornings ago, using my 15X80 binoculars.
The nucleus is very bright, and a little oblong. Saw a nice obscuring dust
lane in one side of the tail. However, I am disappointed with the tail.
In my binox, it is only about 3 degrees long.
However, this could be due to my location and twilight creeping in.
I am south of Ann Arbor (saline) and have to look back at Detroit skies.

How long is the tail visually in dark skies now?

Though I wish it were in darker skies, I have a 16' dome and a 20" newtonian.
I am looking for someone with a CCD camera. Know anyone?

Brian Ottum

Yup - pretty amazing, huh? Observed through my bedroom window when
the alarm went off about 5:30. Too tired and too cold to wander
outside. About 2 degrees of tail visible with binoculars. Brightest
thing beside Vega through the window.

Jeff Bondono