mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (08/10/90)
Archive-name: comet-levy/07-Aug-90 Original-posting-by: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) Original-subject: Comet Levy Archive-site: c.scs.uiuc.edu [128.174.90.3] Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) I tried to view Comet Levy last night, at midnight with the full moon. It was very easy to find with binoculars or a low-power 5 inch telescope. Tonight (Aug. 7) is probably the worst possible night, as the moon is getting closer and the horizon won't help much. After tonight the moon is still getting closer but will be under the horizon at the end of dusk and the comet will be well up. What with the moon, I won't even try to guess the brightness. This appears to be the "big" comet we have been waiting for. It is supposed to get to third magnitude. After the Austin fiasco this may be the winner. Two finder charts in Postscript format are in the anonymous ftp directory of c.scs.uiuc.edy as levy1.ps (wide area - all of August) and levy2.ps (larger scale for the next few days.) The dates on those charts refer to 0 hours GMT. In other words, Aug 10.00 is very early evening of the 9th in the United States. For those without ps printers, Aug 8 and 9 it will be passing mu and lambda Pegasi respectively. Doug McDonald