Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Comet McNaught


Last night it started clearing up right near sunset, and through scattered clouds I was able to see a blazing new comet, C/2006 P1 McNaught, near perihelion. A bright coma and tail was visible golden deep in the murk of the western horizon. It reminded me much of Comet Hale-Bopp, except H-B was that bright and in a dark sky--this one is only 10 degrees from the Sun.
This picture is a view through a six-inch refractor at approximately 40x, taken afocally (aka put the camera up to the eyepiece).

How to find it

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