Well, there are no less than six comets crudding up our skies, and I
hope you take an opportunity this weekend to view at least two of
them. If you're observing under a 5th magnitude sky or darker and
have a 4" you should have no problems seeing the brightest, C/2001
RX14 (LINEAR). Located in UMa, it rides high in the sky after 9:00pm.
It's quite bright (10.7 mag) and rather large, with a wide tail
fanning westward. I tried to see it in my 10x40 finder but it was too
close to a bright star to resolve it.
Another fairly good comet, and one culminating even earlier at 8:00pm
EST is C/2001 HT50 (LINEAR-NEAT). The comet has remained stable at
magnitude 11.5 magnitude, only 1/10 magntidue brighter than when I
first observed it on Jan 25, 2003. It's should be quite nice in a 8"
or larger scope; and at 100x should appear large, and round. I
detected a faint but fairly wide tail extending about 5' ENE.
Oh, one other object I'd like to suggest viewing. It's often
overlooked, but shouldn't be. Have you ever observed two galaxies in
collision? Now's your chance. NGC 4038 in Corvus, nicknamed the
Antennae, or Ring Tail lies some 60 million light years distance.
You'll be hard pressed to see the Antennae, but the Ring Tail should
be no problem. It has always reminded me of a shrimp, because of its
curved shape. This "curved" portion is actually the collision galaxy,
NGC 4039.
N4038 shines brightly at 10.9 magnitude, but actually has a high
surface brightness so is quite easy to see in small telescopes.
Please remind me to show it to you ladies and gents in the 25" at
ECSP. Wow! It's stunning. You might hear me say, "It's the best pair
of collison galaxies I've ever seen". That's all for now, I'm going
to bed. If one could observe in one's sleep I'd probably do so.
Here's some positions for the objects mentioned. The comet positions
are those for Saturday, March 1.
C/2001 RX 14
RA 11h 39m 27.1s
DEC +39 14' 06s
UMa
10.7 magnitude
Comet C/2001 HT50
RA 06 24m 45.5s
DEC +03 51' 55s
Monoceros
Magnitude 11.5
Antennae/Ring Tail Galaxy NGC 4038/4039
12h 01m 52.8s
DEC -18 51' 54s
Corvus
Magnitude 10.9
Kent Blackwell
Kent Blackwell