Last night a friend of mine and I were at one of the best "local" dark sites. The CSC looked extremely good for the entire region but the transparency during the early part of the night was rather disappointing. (It improved markedly around 1:00 a.m.)
In addition to dozens of DSOs, including several obscure planetary nebulae, I viewed two ISS passes and a number of other satellite events, several bright meteors, and a number of new asteroids, (one being 14.1 magnitude) and three comets that I hadn't seen before. One of them was comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) in Pegasus. Compared to the other two, this comet was surprisingly bright in my friend's 20" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob and sported a short tail.
For more on C/2006 W3 (Christensen), see the following sites:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006W3/2006W3.html
http://transientsky.wordpress.com/tag/comet-christensen/
http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/
Dave Mitsky
In addition to dozens of DSOs, including several obscure planetary nebulae, I viewed two ISS passes and a number of other satellite events, several bright meteors, and a number of new asteroids, (one being 14.1 magnitude) and three comets that I hadn't seen before. One of them was comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) in Pegasus. Compared to the other two, this comet was surprisingly bright in my friend's 20" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob and sported a short tail.
For more on C/2006 W3 (Christensen), see the following sites:
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006W3/2006W3.html
http://transientsky.wordpress.com/tag/comet-christensen/
http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/
Dave Mitsky
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
