fisher@scotty.DEC (Burns Fisher, MRO3-1/E13, DTN 231-4108.) (11/09/85)
I was out looking for Halley's comet tonight after seeing the posting a few
days ago saying that it was moving between Orion and the Pleades. There's a
*lot* of space between those two! In any case, perhaps someone could tell
me if what I saw is likely to be Halley's:
Description: A star-like spot with a fuzzy halo right next to the middle star
in Orion's sword, and probably dimmer. I could see the middle star with
naked eye, but only with binocs could I see that there were really two (and
the fuzz).
Conditions: Visible with 7x50 binoculars, but not really naked eye. Viewed
from a mildly-but-not-too-dark surburban neighborhood. Perhaps the Milky Way
is visible with a good imagination. November 8, 1985. 2330 EST.
Are there normally two stars there, or might it be Halley? I suppose it might
also be M42? Damn! I wish I were more familiar with that area!
Has anyone seen it with binocs?
Thanks,
Burns
UUCP: ... {decvax|allegra|ucbvax}!decwrl!rhea!dvinci!fisher
ARPA: fisher%dvinci.dec@decwrl.ARPAcanopus@amdahl.UUCP (Alpha Carinae) (11/11/85)
> I was out looking for Halley's comet tonight after seeing the posting a few > days ago saying that it was moving between Orion and the Pleades. There's a > *lot* of space between those two! In any case, perhaps someone could tell > me if what I saw is likely to be Halley's: > > Description: A star-like spot with a fuzzy halo right next to the middle star > in Orion's sword, and probably dimmer. I could see the middle star with > naked eye, but only with binocs could I see that there were really two (and > the fuzz). You were looking at M-42, the Great Nebula in Orion. -- Frank Dibbell (408-746-6493) ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!canopus Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA [This is the obligatory disclaimer..]
cmpbsdb@gitpyr.UUCP (Don Barry) (11/13/85)
In article <1343@decwrl.UUCP>, fisher@scotty.DEC (Burns Fisher, MRO3-1/E13, DTN 231-4108.) writes: > > ...spot with a fuzzy halo right next to the middle star > in Orion's sword, and probably dimmer. I could see the middle star with > naked eye, but only with binocs could I see that there were really two (and > the fuzz). Yes, you saw the famed Orion Nebula, M-42 and the detached portion M-43. This is easily visible to the naked eye, even from most urban environments. The integrated magnitude of the nebula, four bright stars(the "trapezium") is around 2.5, though it appears slightly dimmer due to its size. > Are there normally two stars there, or might it be Halley? I suppose it might > also be M42? Damn! I wish I were more familiar with that area! > Has anyone seen it with binocs? Halley has now passed the Hyades (the "snout" of Taurus containing Aldebaran) and is closing in on the Pleiades. It has long left Orion, and never, in fact, was within the confines of the body - it was in the uppermost regions of the outstretched arm. I have seen it in as small as a 7 x 30 finderscope, so it is easily visible in binocs. I believe it is very close to naked-eye visibility, and I'm quite sure I could see it now naked-eye under excellent sky conditions. If you have a star atlas, you may wish to plot coordinates I gave at the beginning of the month for the comets to see their motion and relative location. I will soon be doing the same for the month of December. -- Don Barry (Chemistry Dept) CSnet: cmpbsdb%gitpyr.GTNET@gatech.CSNET Georgia Institute of Technology BITNET: CMPBSDB @ GITVM1 Atlanta, GA 30332 ARPA: cmpbsdb%gitpyr.GTNET%gatech.CSNET@csnet-relay.ARPA UUCP: ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!cmpbsdb