Binocular Sighting of Comet 177P/2006 M3 (Barnard 2)

[Dave Mitsky]

Five fellow ASH members and I had a very fine time at one of the ASH dark sites last night. Like the night before, we observed many celestial objects, including the Moon, planets, double stars, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae (both bright and very dim), a quasar, and Comet 177P.

After locating the comet with my 101mm Tele Vue refractor, I spent a few minutes looking through my friend Tony Donnangelo's Celestron 15x70 binocular, which was mounted on my Vista binocular guider. Eventually, I could just make out the comet with averted vision.

Dave Mitsky

[Blob]

Hum,
well done,
It is beyond my vision from where i am.

http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=44691
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=45131
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=45771
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?t=45157

[JohnW]

I found it Saturday night. A tricky search, but easy to see at 67x once I'd got the location. Very diffuse, without the bright starlike core we see in brighter comets. Stellarvue 115mm refractor, Seattle backyard.

[redshifter]

I also was able to see it Friday night at 40x in my 10" dob (didn't try more magnification in the poor transparancy). I noticed a brighter starlike core myself, but very diffuse and faint overall. However, the transparancy was horrible, even in my dark sky location 70mi east of Seattle. It was very hazy and dusty. The seeing was OK though.

[Dave Mitsky]

During the ASH Sunday Public Observing Session last night, some members and visitors looked at 177P using the ASH 17" classical Cassegrain at 118 and 144x. It was a good night but from our ~5.5 VLM site, the comet was very faint.

Dave Mitsky

[Dave Mitsky]

I saw the comet through a friend's 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain last night at 159x (32mm University Optics MK-80) from a somewhat darker, privately owned site. The coma was large and uniformly diffuse.

Afterwards, I looked at NGC 6229, a distant globular cluster not too far from the comet, M13 (the Propellor was clearly evident at 159 and 203x), NGC 6207 (the spiral galaxy near M13 at 159 and 203x), NGC 6239 (a 12.4 magnitude galaxy in Hercules at 159 and 203x), NGC 7009 (the Saturn Nebula at 127, 159, and 203x), and Uranus (159 and 203x). It looked like it was going to be a great night at first but before long we were invaded by a mackerel sky.

Dave Mitsky