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Other (Other, est. to be in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jul 2 06:45:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 178
(Another database problem: Mu Cygni doesn't appear to be a valid object name. Nor is Struve 2822.) As with Delta Cygni, couldn't split it at 122x or 244x. It was fairly low in the sky (~30 degrees), which I'm sure didn't help from a seeing standpoint. A meteor crossed the field while I was trying, though, which was fun (made me jump!).
Delta Cyg (Multiple Star, in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jul 2 06:30:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 177
Burnham's calls this a "fairly severe test" for a 3" or 4" telescope, but my 8-inch couldn't split it. Presumably he was talking about a refractor, not a reflector. Also, it could have been that the seeing wasn't sufficiently good.
Alpha Cyg (Deneb) (Star, in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jul 2 06:10:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 175
Before coming out to observe I asked Linda, who was already in bed, what she thought I should look at. She chose Cygnus from the list of possibilities I gave, so Cygnus it was. Working my way through Burnham's, I started with Deneb, a dazzling white star in a pretty field. After observing in relatively sparse Hercules the other night, I really noticed the rich Milky Way star field at 49x.
Comet (Comet, est. mag 0.6, est. to be in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Wed Mar 5 13:25:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 94
With the moon waning, Hale-Bopp is looking better. Using the naked eye, I was able to see the blue ion tail with averted vision; I could definitely follow it for about 8 degrees, though at one point I thought I could see it extending all the way into the Milky Way; about 15 degrees. The dust tail was a bright, narrow fan extending about 1.5 degrees. With 7x50 binoculars the W jet was prominent, giving the head of the comet the distinctly lopsided look my wife commented on when she and my daughter looked at the comet yesterday morning through our bedroom window. By the time I got the scope set up the E sky was just beginning to brighten. At 122x the head of the comet looked great; there were two obvious concentric hoods extending along the SW side of the head, from about PA 160 to PA 270; these seemed associated with the generally brighter area on this side of the pseudonucleus, which in the binoculars I've been interpreting as a jet. I didn't perform my truly naked-eye (no glasses) brightness estimate until the E sky was already fairly light, which I've noticed before tends to reduce my estimate (since the fuzzy outer parts of the comet get washed out?). In any event, I estimated the comet's magnitude as lying halfway between Vega (0.0) and Deneb (1.3), for an est. magnitude of 0.6.
Comet (Comet, est. to be in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Sat Mar 1 13:35:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 92
My first viewing of Hale-Bopp with the new 8-inch telescope. Unfortunately, I overslept, so it was 0535 local time by the time I set up, and the E sky was brightening rapidly. Still, at 48x, and then at 96x, I was able to observe a prominent jet and three concentric hoods in the coma's brightest quadrant (the NW). Fantastic!
Comet (Comet, est. mag 1.0, est. to be in Cygnus)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 7x50-mm binoculars Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Feb 28 13:25:00 1997 UT Obs. no.: 79
Hale-Bopp continues to brighten. Even with the waning gibbous moon interfering, I could detect about 2 degrees of dust tail extending NW from the coma with the naked eye. I wasn't able to detect the ion tail naked-eye, however. In 7x50s I needed averted vision to detect 6 degrees of ion tail, while 2 degrees of dust tail was obvious. A huge jet extended W from the pseudonucleus, quickly turning to the NW and causing the W side of the dust tail to be significantly brighter than the N side. With my glasses off, estimated overall brightness of the comet to lie 1/4 of the way from Deneb (1.3) to Vega (0.0), for an est. magnitude of 1.0.
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