Thursday, January 14, 2015 about 10:30pm CT: Comet LoveJoy

Another dark, clear moonless night. I couldn't bear the cold on the 11th and I regretted that the next few days as the comet reached perihelion and the skies were completely overcast (as they had been most of winter). A clear, dark sky was rare lately. I couldn't pass this up again. I went out to see if I could find the comet. I recalled where I thought it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be mag. 3.7 and easily visible with the naked eye. I had my Astroscan low power lens. I kept spotting fuzzy patches where I expected it to be. Nothing. Excellent sky though. The contrast in the Great Orion Nebula proved that.

I got bored and looked at a few Messier objects in Capella (which I could detect with the naked eye - great sky!). I wish I had ran in to get a filter and stronger magnification for Jupiter. You could see equatorial bands even without a filter. Two moons on the right and it looked like an occulation was going to occur or had just occurred on the left (yeah, my image was reversed). My focuser was freezing up. So, I gave up.

I took the scope in the house and got ready for bed. Curious what I did wrong, I looked up a star map online for the comet. I was looking too close to Orion - it was in Taurus. I studied the map and decided that it would be in a straight line from Aldebaran to λ and using that as a unit of measure - it would be about 2.5 units to the comet and would line up nicely creating a new bigger V with Pleiades on the other end. So, I got dressed again, grabbed the scope and went back out.

I tried repeatedly looking exactly where it was supposed to be. Funny thing is, the orientation of the bulls horns was not like it was pictured. Whatever. I keep looking, then just panning back and forth. Maybe it's not that big. Maybe my "light bucket" is too small. Maybe these skies aren't as good as I thought. I was about to give up and then I saw it! The difficulty of finding it made the discovery that much more thrilling! And it was BIG! It had not tail in my scope but it was very obviously a comet. It looked like Hale-Bopp did in the early April mornings as it was headed toward us - only BIGGER - much bigger!

How did I not see this earlier?! I check the sights - IT WASN'T WHERE THEY SAID IT WAS! I was just under Pleiades. That V shape I was looking for didn't exist. Hmmm. Next time, look at multiple sources!

If you get a chance - try with binoculars and dark adjusted pupils. It's pretty cool!


P.S. Wow! It has been 10 years since I posed on this?!