Comet 17P/Holmes, 11-26-2007
I haven't been out observing and sketching for a while, but I caught up on Holmes tonight. It's become much more extended, diffuse and faint since the last sketch. This sketch is night of November 26, 9:12-9:18 pm through 12x60 binoculars from my home in urban San Francisco. Seeing 7/10, Transparency 3/10 (high haze and clouds). As with the other Holmes sketches, graphite drawing pencil and blending stump on Strathmore 400 drawing paper. Image scanned and processed on the Mac with Pixelmator imaging software.
Comet 17P/Holmes, 11-09-2007
Here's another sketch from the night of November 9, 10:01-10:12pm PST through the same 12x60 binoculars as the original sketch October 25. Note how much larger and diffuse the coma has become. This sketch was from my home driveway in the middle of San Francisco. Seeing 6/10, Transparency 4/10. Graphite sketch pencils and blending stump on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper. Scanned and processed on a Macintosh using Pixelmator graphics software.
Comet 17P/Holmes, 11-03-2007
The second sketch was through a homemade 10-inch F/7 Dobsonian, with a 40mm Koenig eyepiece (45x). November 3, 10:29pm - 10:40 pm PDT. This sketch was also from my driveway in the middle of light-polluted San Francisco, surrounded by six streetlights. Seeing 7/10, Transparency 2/10. The sketch was made with Staedtler sketch pencils and blending stump on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper. It was scanned and processed on a Macintosh using Pixelmator graphics software.
Comet 17P/Holmes, 10-25-2007
October 25, 10:23-10:28 pm, PDT. This sketch was through 12x60 binos, from my driveway in the middle of light-polluted San Francisco, surrounded by six streetlights. Seeing 5/10, Transparency 2/10. Though you can't compare directly, I also observed through the binos on November 3 and the diameter of the comet's coma viewed through the binos has pretty much doubled. The sketch was made with Staedtler sketch pencils and blending stump on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper. It was scanned and processed on a Macintosh using Pixelmator graphics software. This is the oddest comet I've yet observed; as others have mentioned, it looks like a pregnant planetary nebula.
Comet C/2006 VZ13, 07-14-2007
Bright summer comet. Viewed from urban skies.
Comet C/2006 VZ13, 07-07-2007
Bright summer comet. Viewed from urban skies.
Comet 2006/M4 SWAN, 10-21-2006
Surprise comet of Fall 2006.
Comet 73P (Schwassma...hmann) C, 04-29-2006
Fragment C (the brightest) of this disintegrating comet. Easy to locate, being near the lower star of the Keystone asterism in Hercules. Apparent double nucleus - or is that a nearby field star?
Comet 73P (Schwassma...hmann) B, 04-30-2006
Fragment B of this disintegrating comet, the other fragment easily visible with a modest sized telescope. Harder to locate than C due to location (in Corona Borealis, no suitable marker stars nearby) and its being fainter than C. Hints of a possible stellar nucleus w/averted vision
Comet 9p/Tempel 1 07-02-2005
This is the comet that was struck by the NASA Deep Impact mission, sketched the night before the impact. View was visible as an averted vision object.
Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) 12-18-2004
Another fine comet for 2004! Compared views through 12x60 binos with this telescopic view, and decided the telescopic view was the way to go. Comet had a very distinct halo, plus three visible tails. City view, with some haze and first quarter moon in the sky.
Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), 06-05-2004
Early evening view from Montebello, with no moon but twilight. Nucleus easily visible, but tail was not. Still, the nucleus has a "flattening" on the NE side which possibly suggests a tail. A cute little tree-shaped asterism shares the view along with the comet, to the W (right of the comet in this sketch).
Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), 06-05-2004
Night view from Montebello, no Moon. Surprisingly, I caught the tail depicted here with averted vision after finishing the sketch, so I went back and added it. Nucleus was not quite as obvious as the sketch depicts. Looks great for a comet that should be fading.
Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), 05-29-2004
View from Montebello, with suburban-quality skies and light of gibbous Moon. Lots of additional skyglow and haze from near-horizon position.
Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), 05-29-2004
View from Montebello, with suburban-quality skies and light of gibbous Moon. Only barest suggestion of tail visible.
Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), 05-23-2004
View from the city. Surprisingly good considering city lights, moon, twilight not yet done. Tail was visible only momentarily, and only with averted vision. Otherwise, comet looked like fuzzy star.
Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), 05-15-2004
View from dark skies, with the Beehive cluster (M44) in the same binocular field. Sketched during twilight. View got better as skies darkened. Tail over 4 degrees long.
Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT), 05-11-2004
First decent view from city skies. Three tails were detectable with averted vision, but I did not get to see them all at once. Hence, the sketch is a composite. Field of view of the binoculars is roughly simulated.