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Clear Sky

Entry 460, on 2007-01-19 at 14:18:13 (Rating 1, Activities)

Last night I anxiously scanned the south-western horizon as the Sun set hoping to get another look at Comet McNaught. There was a bit of cloud around, and I wasn't very hopeful of getting a good view, but luckily the sky cleared just after sunset and I did get a look at this impressive comet for about 30 minutes until it also set. There was some light cloud around still, but the comet was still easy to see without any optical aid.

The photo accompanying this blog entry shows the comet as the sky got a bit darker. It looked almost as conspicuous as this to the naked eye even though you can see quite a lot of light cloud in the area.

So I'm happy that, after so many days of cloud, I have had a second look at this comet after the rather unsatisfactory views I got on Monday night. According to Starry Night (a program I recently bought and highly recommend) the comet will remain in view for a few more days, so I hope to get even better photos of it in future. Sometimes, the frustrations of being an amateur astronomer disappear, and observing is good!

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