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February 20, 2003

A fellow astronomer (owner of an 8" SkyQuest) and myself went out for a bit of comet chasing.;-)

We found ourselves in Columbus, Tx just as it got dark. Clouds had caused us some concern during the drive to location. Leaving the city lights we assessed our sky situation. The thin layer of clouds covered Venus and the comet. My friend made a phone call to check on weather information. While the phone call was in progress, I noticed that there was a patch of clear sky moving towards the comets location. I pulled out a pair of 7X35 binoculars to see how clear the stars were in the apparent clearing sky...the stars were crystal clear:)

I suggested moving and we went up the road just a little, when I saw the skies were clear. I figured we wouldn't get that many chances at it. With my 16X50 pair of binoculars I scanned the area of the sky the comet resided in. I spotted a fuzzy patch. I went to my chart and took a mental note of at least its location before the clouds moved back in. Clouds began to thicken. I got one last view of the comet before clouds moved in for good. Though my view through the binoculars was not as grand as the 8" would have been, but the clouds beat us to setting the scope up.

We moved to follow the patch clear sky, but ended up with light from Columbus. Still I took a few pictures on my new Canon A60. We observed many messier objects just enjoying the skies:) Though clouds did fill part of the sky they made for a neat look and cleared long enough for Venus and some of the astronomical wonders of the winter skies.

Here are a few pictures...

Cirrus clouds and Jupiter	Orion Test with A60 Canon Digicam	Comet C/2002 T7...not a great view but I saw it (Graphic created in Paint Shop Pro)