baz.com - Brett Thomas' Blog

I (rather randomly) began rereading The Complete Sherlock Holmes for the first time since I was about 14. I'd say the thing that surprises me most is that someone who was so elegantly able to describe the scientific method was such a nitwit when it came to actual science. Obviously, I'd known the latter, but I'd forgotten the former.

As I was getting ready for bed, tonight, I thought to stick my head outside and see if it was clear. To my surprise, it was! I knew Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) was naked-eye visible, if you lived in a dark place, and near Saturn, so easy to find.

I looked up its location, and discovered it was practically in conjunction with Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the lion. Combined with the close proximity to Saturn, it was very easy to find the place to look, so I grabbed my binoculars. Even in my light-polluted skies, it was easy to see the smudge.

I then decided to break out the 100 mm refracting telescope, which, between various minor physical ailments and the cloudy Bay Area winter skies, I hadn't done in a long time. I decided at first to simply run it manually, but it was very difficult to get a good fix on it - the way the 'scope wanted to point, it was hard to lock it and look at the target at the same time.

I broke down and pulled out the battery for the telescope, got it roughly polar-aligned, and skewed it over to the location. Finally! I was able to get a very good view of the coma through a 12.5 mm eyepiece. I now understand very clearly why Messier felt compelled to make his list of "comet-like" objects so he'd not keep mistaking them for what he was hunting.

I was just vacillating between trying to take some pictures of it, and getting Derek out of bed. I know he's always wanted to see a comet. But, the perfectly clear skies suddenly filled with clouds from the west - in five minutes, it went from clear to unviewable.

Hopefully, we'll have some clear skies tomorrow, early, before too far after Derek's bedtime. It's a tough balance - every night, the comet rises in the sky, but gets further from the sun (and becomes dimmer).