Thursday, March 14, 2013

Comet Pan-STARRS

Photo Fail

Comet Pan-STARRS has been near the western horizon just after sunset the past few days. I spent several days battling clouds and poor viewing locations before I managed to see the comet in binoculars for the first time on March 13th during a 20-minute viewing window from 7:57 to 8:17 pm EDT. On March 14th I found the comet more quickly in momentarily clearer skies.

My photo attempt on March 14th was pathetically inadequate. It was hard to operate the camera in the cold 20 MPH wind. My hands were soon frozen. Only one image was worth keeping. The comet is very small in the image below. Can you see it in blue sky slightly above center?
Comet Pan-STARRS is barely visible here. (Click for a larger image.)
The comet looked very nice in binoculars. It was quite bright and displayed a nice tail. Too bad I couldn't capture these details in a good image.
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1 comment:

  1. EllenMarch 15, 2013 at 8:04 AM

    I can see it, barely. Must have been cool with the binoculars!

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