Oglethorpe Astronomical Association: Public activities in Savannah:
- Tuesday, April 1: Heard Elementary School Star Party.
- Friday/Saturday, April 4-5, at dusk: Public observing session to view comet Hale-Bopp at the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum.
- Saturday, April 5, 3:30pm: OAA meeting at Armstrong Atlantic University. Visitors welcome!
- Saturday, April 12, 9am - 9pm: Astronomy Day at Savannah Mall. See the starlab planetarium and participate in various programs.

March photographs of comet Hale-Bopp

Things To Remember For the Would-Be Astrophotographer, As Pertaining to that Once-In-A-Lifetime Comet:
1. Read Murphy's Law and all its varied axioms and corollaries. Read it again. Got it?? Okay, next item.
2. The number of photographers at a site is directly proportional to the number of possible screw-ups that can occur....i.e. Photographer No.1 is set up and drawing power for his clock drive from his car battery. In the process of connecting the power leads, he opens his hood....which just happens to obstruct Photographer No.2's view of the sky. Let's not even mention Photographer No.3....... ARRRRRGH!!!! Remember the mantra of the real estate industry....everything is location, location, location!! Fields of fire need to be clear of bystanders!!
3. Check ALL your settings. A screwed-up F-stop adjustment cannot compensate for even the fastest film. Did we mention focus???
4. Do not try to operate more than one piece of new or unfamiliar equipment per outing. The likelihood that problems and more gray hairs will result increases in an alarming geometric manner!!
5. In case a black card cannot be located for performing the "hat trick", remember that the lid from a pizza box will do in a pinch.
6. Fog banks have innate intelligence. They are very similar in nature to the cloud creature that consumed blood in the original Star Trek television series...with the exception that their prey is precision optical surfaces. Don't assume that just because you have found a clear area that the "patchy fog" won't find you!!
7. A well-known rule states that if you get one good picture per roll of film, then you're doing good. Another related one states that you shouldn't expect to get ANY good pictures at all until you've been throught three or four rolls of bad pictures.
8. Don't ignore that new knob that suddenly appeared in the bottom of your equipment case...it goes on something somewhere.
9. Be especially wary of family male canine pets staking out territory.... i.e. don't place your equipment near its boundaries.
10. Happiness is a good polar alignment.
11. Vicious dogs, wild pigs, and the genetically-challenged armed with shotguns can ruin your outing. Choose your observing site with care.
12. Refrain from erecting your telescope and camera in the immediate vicinity of large colonies of stinging, subterranean insects (ants). It is difficult enough trying to remember the previous 11 pointers without the lil' buggers sinking their mandibles into your tender flesh. OUCH!!!
13. ABOVE ALL, DON'T GIVE UP. Not everyone can afford a Schmidt camera, but you can produce a picture worth framing with practice and dogged determination.

This is a photo by Andy Blackburn, an OAA member, in the dark site in Clyo on March 16, 1997. He exposed Fuji 800ASA print color film for 45 seconds without tracking with his Olympus OM-1 camera using a 50mm/f1:1.8 lens. The 4"x6" paper print has been scanned with an HP Scanjet IIcx scanner into a bmp-file, and the picture cropped with Microsoft Image Composer and saved in jpeg format.

The second photo was also taken by Andy on March 16 in Clyo, GA. The technical data of this picture are the same as for picture one, but this picture was tracked. Exposure time was 90 seconds. Notice the blue ion tail pointing to the upper left. The comet was higher in the sky in this photo, and there is no more sky glow visible near the horizon like in the first photo.

The third photo was also taken by Andy Blackburn. He used a 150mm telephoto lens for this picture, exposing it for 2 minutes, tracking the stars. These are superb pictures, don't you agree? You have about one month to beat these! - See Andy's pictures in the Image Gallery in the blue column, too.

The fourth photo was taken by Philip Neidlinger, also an OAA member. His Olympus OM-2 camera was attached to the back of his Celestron C8, which acted as a 2000mm f/10 telephoto lens. He exposed the Fuji 1600ASA film for 30 seconds.

Photo 5 was taken by myself on March 10th in the Rails to Trails park east of Wilmington Island. I used my camera Canon EOS Rebel X S, with zoom settings 80mm/1:5.6 and film Kodak Royal Gold 1000ASA. Exposure time 1 minute. Compare the light polluted sky with the dark sky in Clyo in the pictures above.

Photo 6 was taken by Gil Stacy from Savannah on March 16, 1997, in Ft. Stewart, GA. He used his Nikon with a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor stopped at f2.0. Fuji 800ASA film was exposed for 40 seconds.

Photo below: Topi Tuomi, Savannah, GA.
The picture was taken on March 17, 1997 :

These months are very interesting in astronomical sense. Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), discovered over a year and half ago on the same night by two astronomers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, made its closest approach to Earth on March 22nd, and will be closest to the Sun (in perihelion) on April first. It has been a very bright object on the morning sky, and now it's well visible on the evening sky. Since the beginning of January the comet has been visible in the east before the morning twilight, and is still visible before the sunrise in Savannah. On a clear sky the comet is very easily visible to the naked eye, and you should find it in the east-northeast easily between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., before the dawn. In the evening sky it is visible in the nortwest after the evening twilight, until about 9pm., best seen from 7:15 to 8:45. The comet is a beautiful naked eye sight, as my photograph on the right shows. This photo was taken in the morning of St. Patrick's Day. The lighthouse is located on Tybee Island 20 miles east of Savannah. If you click this picture, you'll see a higher definition (800x600 pix) version, which you can set as a wallpaper for Windows95 by clicking it by the right mouse button and selecting 'Set As Wallpaper'.

How to locate the comet in the morning and evening sky

The comet is now visible in the northwestern sky after the sunset as well. It seems that the evening sky often has some high clouds and a lot of air pollution, besides the bright city lights when looking northwest from Wilmington Island, where my home is located. The comet sets about 9:30pm this weekend (March 29-30), so if the sky happens to be clear between 7 and 9 in the evening, you should be able to spot Hale-Bopp easily in the northwestern sky. Dale Ireland has a good comet locator map for March on his comet page, if you want to see where the comet is heading.

Planet Jupiter (mag -2.0) is also visible in the east just before the sunrise, and is higher every morning, rising now around 4am. Mars is in the southeast in the evening and in the southwest in the morning. Saturn and Venus are too close to the sun to be seen, but Mercury is starting to appear as an evening star and will have its best showing of the year in late March and early April.

March observations in Savannah, GA

Saturday, March 01, 1997
Judging from the gorgeous day we have (sunny, breezy, 77ºF/25ºC), the comet must have been visible in the morning. But since we had company last night to celebrate the Finnish Kalevala day, I didn't let the alarm clock go off this morning.

Sunday, March 02, 1997
The first glimpse of Hale-Bopp this morning astounded me: the comet has grown in the apparent size and brightness a lot in just two days! The clouds blocked the view of the comet most of the time today, but had enough breaks to allow me to see the bands mentioned above once again.

Monday, March 03, 1997
Cloudy morning, no chance to see the comet. Partly cloudy, warm day clearing toward the evening. Looks promising for tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, March 04, 1997
The comet was again brighter than two days ago. Especially the tail was much more prominent despite the crescent moon on the eastern sky. I dragged my 13-year old son to see the comet at 5:30, too, but after he had looked at it with naked eye, binoculars, and the telescope, I let him go back to bed for one more hour. The bands in the tail near the coma were still visible. What's causing them?

Wednesday, March 05, 1997
The morning was clear, but the humidity was 100% at 66ºF/19ºC. The trees were dripping condensated water, and I had to find a place with no tree branches overhead, in order to stay dry while watching the comet thru my telescope. Hale-Bopp is improving morning by morning, especially the tail is getting longer when viewed with the naked eye. The waves in the tail near the coma were still there - Charles Morris is amazed with them, too, and on his observations page he calls them "hoods".

Thursday, March 06, 1997
I jumped out of bed at 5:25, dressed up lightly and stepped outside to check the comet. Hale-Bopp was in its usual spot, but didn't look too great because of poor seeing conditions. After carrying my telescope and chair to my front yard, I sat down and aimed the scope to the comet. But just as I had the first glimpse of it, the clouds rolled in and covered it. During the next ten or fifteen minutes I managed to observe the comet for about half a minute, and saw the bands or hoods again, but then the clouds were so solid that I gave up and carried my equipment back inside. - The moon was just a thin crescent in the eastern horizon, and won't affect the morning viewing from now on. And by the time the moon returns to the morning sky, the comet will be visible in the evening!
This is what Charles Morris wrote on his own page this morning: "1997 Mar. 6.54 UT: ml=0.1, DC=9-, Tail: 25 deg. (gas) 18 deg. (dust) ...NE... Charles Morris (Fillmore, CA) [In 26cm L (108x), very similar to recent mornings ...three ~ quarter circle hoods seen south and Sunward of the false nucleus. Two inner hoods span about 80-90 degrees around the false nucleus. They extend from the solar radius vector toward the south. The inner hood has a bulge at its tailward end that almost merges with the nucleus. The outer hood is fainter and uniform in width. The outer hood was only glimpsed North side of coma has little or no activity. m1 corrected for extinction. The dust tail was lost in the Milky Way. This comet is absolutely wonderful!! I will be thankful when it moves into the evening sky and I can get a full night's sleep!]."
I agree with him!

Friday, March 07, 1997
It was a cool, clear morning; the cold front that passed our area yesterday did its job. At 5 o'clock Hale-Bopp looked much brighter than ever in very black sky, and I decided to go to the Rails to Trails park on Hwy 80 to Tybee. All the packing and driving took too much time, and when I took my first picture of the comet around 5:30, there was a hint of dawn already in the eastern horizon. But the comet was so magnificent it dominated the moonless sky, and made me decide to come back earlier tomorrow morning to take the remaining pictures on the film. Around 6 the sky was so bright, that I took today's final pictures of Jupiter and the very thin crescent moon that had just risen above the horizon. Tomorrow I'll see what I got on the film.

Saturday, March 08, 1997
I was at Rails to Trails park by 5 a.m., and met there Henry, who had noticed the comet in the morning sky, and decided to take some pictures of it. I told him everything I knew about Hale-Bopp. I think it's time the TV and press start telling their viewers and readers a little bit more about this phenomenon called Hale-Bopp! Especially since it seems to do better than anybody dared to hope. - I took 8 pictures, too, but then the morning humidity suddenly condensed on every lens I had out there, from my glasses to the telescope and camera. - My pictures didn't turn out too good, either. Although I had 1600ASA film, all my pictures seemed to be underexposed. I found one reason later. The camera selects aperture value 5.6 as default for time exposures, and I have to override it manually. Tomorrow morning will give me the next chance to try longer exposure times, too. - Luckily, Andy Blackburn knows how to take pictures of the comet. When I saw his new pictures yesterday, I had to say WOW! What else can you say of those four pictures above?

Sunday, March 09, 1997
I met two OAA members at 4:30 by the bridge to Fort Pulaski, where we took pictures and watched the comet. The light pollution above Savannah, about 20 miles away in the west, was like a huge pancake, and it illuminated the area like full moon. The light pollution from Hilton Head in the northeast, just below the comet, wasn't that big a problem, since we had some trees to cover it. The humidity was again near 100%, and our lenses fogged over after half an hour of picture shooting. At dawn the gnats attacked us in force, and we hurried home for a nap.

Monday, March 10, 1997
The humidity was still high this morning, when I met Henry at the Rails to Trails viewing spot. The difference from yesterday was the wind that kept the mosquitoes and gnats from attacking us. Fogging wasn't as bad a problem as yesterday, but the front lens of the telescope fogged a little. The comet looked exactly the same as it did yesterday and the day before, although I again had little time to admire it, because almost all my time went to tracking it during the exposures. The space must be full of faint satellites, because I have seen several of them crossing the view in the telescope while watching the comet; today it happened again. - I'm waiting for a clear evening to try and find the comet in the evening sky. Last night the clouds prevented this. The time to see the comet in the evening is right after 7pm, when the sky is getting dark enough. It's located below the W of Cassiopeia, low in the horizon. - The pictures I took yesterday and today turned out fine. Tomorrow I should have some of them on this page. - Hale-Bopp crossed today the one AU milestone and is now closer to the sun than we are.

Tuesday, March 11, 1997
I was getting too tired of the early wake-ups, and decided to take a day off. But so did the comet: it was cloudy when I woke up at six and peeked outside. - Soon we can forget the early morning comet watching, when Hale-Bopp moves from morning into evening sky. Two weeks from now, after the moon has left the evening sky, the comet should be high enough in the northwest to be easily seen after the sunset.

Wednesday, March 12, 1997
Since I had no film, I decided to leave all my equipment behind and went for an early morning walk around the block, just to admire comet Hale-Bopp with naked eye. A weak cold front had passed through the area overnight, and the cool (61ºF/16ºC) weather was just too perfect, and I decided to walk around another block. The sky was unusually clear, and the comet's tail looked much longer than before.

Thursday, March 13, 1997
There is a low pressure area approaching Savannah from the west, and today was the first cloudy morning of several in a row, according to Pat Prokop from WTOC-TV.

Friday, March 14, 1997
The morning was cloudy and rainy, but in the afternoon the clouds started to break, and by the sunset the sky was almost clear. I made my first evening observation of Hale-Bopp this year (it was an evening object until Christmas last year) in the Rails to Trails park on Tybee road. It was already well visible low in the northwest, directly below Cassiopeia's W, when I arrived at 7:30. I lost it around 8 very low in the horizon. The comet seemed to be on its side; the tails pointed almost horizontally to the right. And it looked somewhat greenish, as you might notice in the picture.

Saturday, March 15, 1997
The clouds are gone, and the sky was clear although hazy this morning. I drove to Tybee and took some pictures of the lighthouse and the comet together. The light in the lighthouse was so bright it made photographing it tricky; I'm not sure if any of my photographs will turn out ok. - The green tint in the comet was more prominent than yesterday, as illustrated in the photograph. - In the evening there were half a dozen people in the Rails to Trails park observing the evening apparition of comet Hale-Bopp. It was visible to the naked eye approximately from seven to eight o'clock, and with binoculars for another 15 minutes. And the green overtone was still there.

Sunday, March 16, 1997
This morning I went to the dark sky site in Clyo, GA, with Andy and Philip. We left at 3am from Savannah, and arrived in Clyo by 4am. Hale-Bopp was just above the horizon, pointing straight down. The sky was filled with stars, and the milky way was easy to see. We erected our telescopes and cameras, and started taking pictures of the comet right away. Because my zoom lens has small apertures (f:4 to 5.6), I started with 10 minute exposure times, and was only able to take 10 pictures before the dawn made the sky too light to continue around 5:30. Andy and Philip were able to expose a full 24 picture roll each with their faster lenses. It'll be Tuesday before I can post any of today's pictures here. - The daybreak is rapidly moving to an earlier hour: today we lost the comet from naked eye already around 6 o'clock. - The evening was clear, too, and I saw the comet thru my car's windshield when I went to pick up my son from the movies; he saw the 'Return of the Jedi' new version. And Hale-Bopp looked greener than ever before!

Monday, March 17, 1997
The Party of the Year is here: St. Patrick's Day! There is a huge crowd gathering on River Street: the unofficial estimate is that there are half a million people in Savannah to join the biggest Hale-Bopp watching party today! And because everybody wants to be Irish today, green color is prominent everywhere: the fountains, beer mugs, hats, everything including the comet on the evening sky is green!

Tuesday, March 18, 1997
The party is over for another year, and we are back to serious business about comet Hale-Bopp. The green color in the comet must have been just a hallucination caused by all the green dye in Savannah. Anyway, the pictures I took Sunday morning in Clyo and Monday morning at Tybee lighthouse turned out really good, and on the right there is an example of them. Where will I find room for all the new photos? I guess the old pictures have to make room for the new ones and move to the gallery in the left column. - After several very early mornings I took this morning off and slept an eyeful, ignoring the comet which must have been well visible again, judging from the beautiful morning we had.

Wednesday, March 19, 1997
A cloudy, rainy day gives me a chance to work on my web pages. I finally got the counters working, although some browsers don't seem to display them properly. I now have so many photographs of the comet, both my own and from others, that I can only post a small fraction of them on these pages. And the best is still to come: the perihelion is still almost two weeks away, and the evening show is just beginning. At least we can sleep a little longer in the mornings.

Thursday, March 20, 1997, Vernal Equinox.
The clouds are still here, and the trees and ground are wet from either condensation or overnight rain. The satellite infrared image shows clear conditions just west of Savannah though; the day will likely be sunny, and there is a good reason to expect a view of the comet tonight. - The day was cloudy: no sunshine, no comet.

Friday, March 21, 1997
A low pressure area in northern Florida has kept Savannah cloudy all day today. A cold front is approaching from the northwest though; with some luck we'll have clear skies for the weekend. Especially Sunday night we need good weather to watch the partial lunar eclipse, and the comet, too. - The sky is clear just before midnight, and Clyo is calling for the last morning session. Wakeup call is coming at 2 o'clock!

Saturday, March 22, 1997
After a full two hours of sleep I got my wake-up call from Philip, and soon we were on our way to Clyo. Again we had to use two cars, because his nephew came along, and one car is big enough for two astronomers and their bulky equipment. We got lost on the way, but after some searching and a near-miss of a deer on the road, we found our dark site by 4 a.m. in bright moonlight. Comet Hale-Bopp became visible about 4:20 just above horizon, but we had to wait until 5 until it was high enough and the moon low enough for favorable conditions for comet photos. I took 21 pictures, the first time through my Celestron C8 telescope, since I finally got the mountings for the camera.
We should have a good evening view of the comet tonight, because the sky is now (4pm) blue in every direction. The day has been delightful, 84ºF/29ºC with a nice breeze to keep the gnats at bay.
The evening view of the comet really was good between 7:30 and 8:30 tonight. The next couple of weeks Hale-Bopp will be at its best in the evening sky.

Sunday, March 23, 1997
I had no plans to wake up early this morning, but it was only 5:25 when I opened my eyes feeling well rested. My wife felt the same way, and we decided to go for a short morning walk around the block. Hale-Bopp was well visible in the north-northeast, and the birds were tuning their instruments. What a delightful morning!
Tonight there was a partial (but near full) lunar eclipse, so we had a double feature to watch at the Oglethorpe Astronomical Association's viewing party at Armstrong Atlantic University after the sunset. Half a dozen telescopes pointed first to northwest, where comet Hale-Bopp was visible until about 9 o'clock. Then it was time to turn them east, where the full moon was ready to dive into the earth's shadow. I estimated that forty to fifty people visited the party during the evening. On the way home we kept an eye on the red moon with a white cap, and at home dragged our 14-year old son, Markus, out to look at it too.

Monday, March 24, 1997
This was a quiet day in our comet watching. The morning was clear, but exhausted from last night's late lunar eclipse we slept until 6:30. The evening view was blocked by thick clouds from the Atlantic Ocean. But Patrick Prokop, the weatherman on WTOC, the local CBS station, showed a large version of my "Hale-Bopp and Tybee Lighthouse" picture on his weather show.

Tuesday, March 25, 1997
The sky was still cloudy in Savannah, so we didn't see the comet today, but my daughter and son saw it in Toronto the first time Sunday night, when they went to see the lunar eclipse in the park. I got email from my daughter, and in her message she described how cold it was up there. Freezing temperatures! She also told that a dog in the park marked my son's girlfriend's camera bag with his 'P'. The owner of the dog was extremely sorry about what happened. I don't know if that bag is still usable. - At work a lot of my co-workers had seen my comet/lighthouse picture on TV, and several of them wanted to buy it. I had a bunch of 8x10 inch enlargements made, and tomorrow everybody can have his or her own comet picture. Savannah Morning News will have the picture featured in their comet story in Friday's Diversions section.

Wednesday, March 26, 1997
It rained hard last night, and the clouds continue to cover the sky this morning. The air feels tropical: the humidity is high, and the temperature in the seventies (ºF/20-25ºC).
- In the evening the sky cleared just in time for comet viewing. I went out to check it at 7:30, and the comet was well visible high in the northwestern sky. My neighbor was amazed, because he could watch Hale-Bopp from his front yard, even from his doorsteps. Another neighbor came just home and joined us; she also bought my comet/lighthouse picture that has become famous by Pat Prokop's showing it on his weather show. I guess I have to get another batch of prints made for its appearance in the local newspaper on Friday. - Later I went to our neighborhood dock with my son Markus to see how long the comet could be seen. At 9:15 it was still two finger widths high at arm's length, or about four degrees above the horizon, but was difficult to see with the naked eye. At that time we decided to leave the hungry mosquitoes at the dock, and came home. - The best viewing time in the evening seems now to be from 7:30 to 8:30.

Thursday, March 27, 1997
I didn't check the comet in the morning, but in the evening I went out at 7 and found the comet with naked eye at 7:04pm. Around 8 I viewed it from my backyard and from our street, and it was a beautiful sight. I have a habit of asking (whenever the comet is visible) every person walking by if he/she has seen the comet, and surprisingly many have not. Most have heard of it, but they have no idea where to look for it. It's always a pleasure to point to the northwestern sky and ask them to look, and watch their amazement!

I have had more inquiries about the availability of the picture of the "Comet and Tybee Lighthouse", shown on the local WTOC TV station. I will have 4x6, 8x10, and 11x17 inch prints available at the OAA comet viewing party at Skidaway Island State Park both Friday and Saturday night. The prices will be $2, $15, and $25, respectively.

Good Friday, March 28, 1997
My comet/lighthouse picture looks very nice on the cover of today's Diversions section of Savannah Morning News.
This morning I drove to Tybee and took a few pictures of the comet at the lighthouse, but I doubt today's pictures will match the earlier ones. The comet is very low in the morning sky, and will soon be visible in the evening only. I guess it's time to try and take some evening pictures. I just have to find something interesting to put into the pictures with the comet.
I'm hoping the clear weather we have now at noon will persist until tonight, when the Oglethorpe Astronomical Association has another comet viewing party at the Skidaway Island State Park.
- The clouds moved in for the evening, and Pat Prokop just told we can expect some rain tonight. Tomorrow night promises to be better, and I'm planning to go to the OAA comet viewing party on Skidaway Island State Park early tomorrow night.
- I used this cloudy afternoon for something useful: I prepared a wallpaper size image of my comet/lighthouse picture. If you use Windows95, click this image with the right mouse button, and select 'Set As Wallpaper' with the left button, and you'll have a nice desktop background.

Saturday, March 29, 1997
The reports from last night's comet viewing on the Skidaway Island State Park tell me that the party drew between 30 and 50 visitors. Although the comet itself didn't show up because of the clouds, the visitors enjoyed the video presentation of comets. Let's hope tonight we'll see the comet; in the afternoon the sky looks promising, the clouds are breaking up. At least I'll go there before 6pm to see the video and meet old friends, rain or shine!
And our friend Hale-Bopp didn't disappoint us! We had a crowd of 300 to 400 people visiting the viewing party tonight. There were lineups to the telescopes aimed at the comet, and the gnats had a lot of food. The comet video was running all night for crowded audiences. Let's have a new comet every year from now on!

Sunday, March 30, 1997
The morning viewing is now just about over, and from now on I will concentrate in the evening appearance of comet Hale-Bopp. Tonight a storm system moved to our area just when the comet would have been visible. No observation tonight.
Instead, I worked on this page adding sizes to all the images in order to help the browsers in the slow process of downloading this page.

Monday, March 31, 1997
The cold front with all the thunder and rain passed us overnight, and the day was sunny, cool, and windy. In the evening the sky was very clear and comet Hale-Bopp better than ever in the evening sky. I dragged some of my neighbors out of their houses to see the comet, and they were all amazed!

April pictures and observations and May pictures and observations are on their own archive pages.

What to expect

Table 1. Selected Ephemeris Values for Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997.

 Date     R.A.            Distance from                       #of
 (UT)    J2000    Decl.   Earth    Sun   TMag1     Tmag2      obs
Feb 01   19 40   +15 28   2.004   1.368   2.5   2.1/2.30/2.9   11
Feb 02   19 42   +15 57   1.985   1.356   2.5   2.0/2.27/2.8   14
Feb 03   19 45   +16 27   1.965   1.344   2.4   1.8/2.10/2.4   10
Feb 04   19 48   +16 57   1.945   1.332   2.4   1.8/2.08/2.5    9
Feb 05   19 50   +17 29   1.925   1.320   2.3   1.7/1.90/2.1    9
Feb 06   19 53   +18 00   1.906   1.309   2.3   1.7/1.94/2.5   14
Feb 07   19 56   +18 33   1.886   1.297   2.2   1.4/1.79/2.4   13
Feb 08   19 58   +19 06   1.866   1.286   2.2   1.6/1.81/2.1   12
Feb 09   20 01   +19 40   1.846   1.274   2.1   1.3/1.68/2.4   24
Feb 10   20 04   +20 14   1.827   1.263   2.1   1.4/1.69/2.2   20
Feb 11   20 07   +20 50   1.807   1.251   2.0   1.3/1.70/2.2   20
Feb 12   20 10   +21 26   1.788   1.240   2.0   1.3/1.58/2.2   14
Feb 13   20 14   +22 02   1.769   1.229   1.9   1.3/1.52/1.9   17
Feb 14   20 17   +22 40   1.749   1.218   1.9   1.2/1.48/1.8   10
Feb 15   20 20   +23 18   1.730   1.207   1.8   1.1/1.34/1.8   18
Feb 16   20 24   +23 57   1.711   1.196   1.8   1.0/1.31/1.8   23
Feb 17   20 28   +24 36   1.693   1.186   1.7   1.1/1.36/2.0   12
Feb 18   20 31   +25 17   1.674   1.175   1.6   1.1/1.25/1.8   11
Feb 19   20 35   +25 58   1.656   1.164   1.6   1.0/1.18/1.4   22
Feb 20   20 39   +26 39   1.638   1.154   1.5   0.8/1.07/1.4   21
Feb 21   20 43   +27 21   1.620   1.144   1.5   0.9/1.12/1.5   13
Feb 22   20 47   +28 04   1.602   1.134   1.4   0.8/1.10/1.3    9
Feb 23   20 52   +28 48   1.585   1.124   1.4   0.7/1.01/1.2   22
Feb 24   20 56   +29 32   1.568   1.114   1.3   0.7/0.93/1.1   14
Feb 25   21 01   +30 16   1.552   1.104   1.3   0.6/0.94/1.3   21
Feb 26   21 06   +31 01   1.535   1.095   1.2   0.6/0.92/1.2   15
Feb 27   21 11   +31 46   1.519   1.086   1.2   0.7/0.82/1.0   10
Feb 28   21 16   +32 31   1.504   1.076   1.1   0.5/0.88/1.5   14
- Corrected ephemeris values by Don Yeomans -
Mar  1   21 21   +33 17   1.489   1.067   0.7   0.4/0.69/1.2   12
Mar  2   21 27   +34 02   1.474   1.059   0.6   0.2/0.52/1.1   20
Mar  3   21 33   +34 48   1.460   1.050   0.6   0.2/0.54/1.0   19
Mar  4   21 39   +35 33   1.447   1.042   0.5   0.2/0.36/1.0   12
Mar  5   21 45   +36 19   1.434   1.033   0.5   0.1/0.28/0.5   13
Mar  6   21 52   +37 03   1.421   1.025   0.4   -.1/0.19/0.5   14
Mar  7   21 58   +37 47   1.409   1.018   0.4   -.1/0.04/0.2   19
Mar  8   22 05   +38 31   1.398   1.010   0.4   -.4/-.11/0.3   13
Mar  9   22 13   +39 13   1.387   1.003   0.3   -.4/-.05/0.3   28
Mar 10   22 20   +39 55   1.378    .996   0.3   -.4/-.15/0.1   15
Mar 11   22 28   +40 35   1.368    .989   0.2   -.4/-.19/0.3   18
Mar 12   22 36   +41 14   1.360    .982   0.2   -.6/-.24/0.0   16
Mar 13   22 44   +41 51   1.352    .976   0.2   -.6/-.29/0.3   14
Mar 14   22 53   +42 26   1.344    .970   0.1   -.7/-.45/-.1   11
Mar 15   23 02   +42 58   1.338    .964   0.1   -.5/-.28/0.1    5
Mar 16   23 11   +43 29   1.332    .959   0.1   -.9/-.46/0.0   16
Mar 17   23 20   +43 57   1.328    .953   0.1   -.9/-.47/0.0   13
Mar 18   23 29   +44 22   1.323    .949   0.0   -.7/-.57/-.3    9
Mar 19   23 39   +44 44   1.320    .944   0.0   -.8/-.60/-.3   12
Mar 20   23 49   +45 04   1.318    .940   0.0   -.8/-.58/-.3    9
Mar 21   23 58   +45 20   1.316    .936   0.0  -1.0/-.61/-.3   12
Mar 22   00 08   +45 32   1.315*   .932   0.0  -1.0/-.59/-.3    8
Mar 23   00 19   +45 42   1.315    .929   0.0  -1.0/-.54/-.2   10
Mar 24   00 29   +45 48   1.316    .926  -0.1  -1.0/-.61/0.1   10
Mar 25   00 39   +45 50*  1.318    .923   -.7  -1.2/-.74/-.3    9
Mar 26   00 49   +45 49   1.320    .921   -.8  -1.3/-.78/-.5    9
Mar 27   00 59   +45 44   1.323    .919   -.8* -1.1/-.79/-.4   14
Mar 28   01 09   +45 36   1.327    .917   -.8  -1.3/-.80/-.3   19
Mar 29   01 19   +45 25   1.332    .916   -.8  -1.1/-.75/-.5    6
Mar 30   01 28   +45 10   1.338    .915   -.8  -1.8/-.80/-.5   10
Mar 31   01 38   +44 53   1.344    .914   -.7  -1.1/-.82/-.4   10
Apr  1   01 47   +44 33   1.351    .914*  0.0  Perihelion

Table 2. "Average" Atmospheric Extinction in Magnitudes for 
         Sea Level (z=degrees from zenith, 
                    h=degrees from horizon)

     z      ext.    h
     0      0.3    90  (zenith)
    10      0.3    80
    20      0.3    70
    30      0.3    60
    40      0.4    50
    45      0.4    45
    50      0.4    40
    55      0.5    35       For example, an object 35º above 
    60      0.6    30       the horizon looses 0.5 magnitudes 
    65      0.7    25       because of the atmospheric  
    70      0.8    20       extinction, but an object only 6º 
    75      1.1    15       above horizon looses 2.5 magnitudes.
    80      1.6    10       Thus, if a comet at 6º looks as 
    82      1.9     8       bright as a star at 35º, it actually
    84      2.5     6       is 2 magnitudes brighter.
    85      2.9     5
    86      3.5     4
    87      4.2     3
    88      5.4     2
    89      7.4     1
    90     11.2     0  (horizon)

Clear skies!

If you have any comments, please send email to Topi Tuomi.