Got out of bed early this morning to check on Comet Hale-Bopp. Easily visible to the unaided eye from my backyard. About 13 degrees above the eastern horizon. Looks like a large fuzzy star of about magnitude 2. No tail visible. In 16 x 50 binoculars there is a hint of a tail.

Just a quick look at Comet Hale-Bopp from my backyard with the unaided eye. It's fairly impressive at about the same brightness as Deneb. Can't see any tail, probably due to high clouds and haze.

Saw Comet Hale-Bopp between 19:00 and 19:30. About 12 degrees above the north-western horizon. Very bright at about magnitude 0 to 0.5. There might be a slight hint of a tail, but it's not readily visible.

Double stars: Gamma Leonis was easily split at 100X. The gap between the stars is small, but clear separation. Both components are golden yellow. Unable to resolve O-Epsilon Lenois.

M95, M96, M65, and M66 are just barely visible in the 8-inch at 61X. M105 is not visible. Visual limiting magnitude tonight is 4.3.

The site was just off a side road near a gravel pit. Guy Nason was also there. There were two bright flood lights near the pit that were rather annoying. At the beginning there were a few clouds in the north-west, exactly where the comet was. Then it got completely cloudy so we left.

The site was packed with amateur astronomers who had come to view and photograph the Comet. Among the crowd were Sal Merola and Doug Clapp. My evening was plagued by equipment problems, which were compounded by the fact that I set up both 8-inch and 10-inch telescopes. While rushing to set up both scopes, and dealing with technical problems I forgot to open up the f-stop on my camera and took a few shots at f-8!!

The comet was awesome and looked something like this picture to the unaided eye:


On the same night there was a Toronto Centre meeting, so I called into the meeting, via cellular phone, and gave an update to the audience. Steven Spinney was at the lectern and simply held his cellular phone to the microphone so that my voice could be heard over the sound system.

The purpose of this session was to test the motor drive of the LX6 telescope. The shots below are at prime focus (f6.3) on Kodak Royal Gold 1000, guided with a Bausch & Lomb 800 mm SCT with a 2.5X barlow and a 12.5mm eyepiece. Each photo is just 3 minutes and has been digitally processed to remove as much of the bright sky background as possible. I think these are pretty good shots given the heavily light polluted location! (and the fact that I am not much of an astrophotographer!!)

M13 - Globular Cluster	M57 - Planetary Nebula

Arrived on site at about 22:00. Mike Cook, Al Paglieri, and Rob Underhill were also there. The sky was not the greatest due to haze. I was having a hard time seeing galaxies in the mag. 12 - 12.5 range. Saw only 1 "new" object for the night (NGC 6070, G, Ser). Left the site at about 03:00.

Arrived on site at about 22:00. Mike Cook and Mike D'Angelo were also there. I kept busy during this session by observing what I thought were 10 new objects. But as it turned out, because my observing list was not quite up to date, I had previously seen 8 of them, leaving me with just 2 "new" objects for the night!

These were NGC 6118 (G, Ser) and NGC 6247 (G, Dra). The latter galaxy (NGC 6247) was a dim mag. 13.5, yet I saw it with my 10-inch at 117x and averted vision. The observation was confirmed in Mike Cook's 12-inch LX200.

Morning twilight started at about 03:45 so we packed it in and headed home.

Starfest '97

Although it was clear on Thursday, August 7, it was very hazy so I did not bother to set up my telescope.

On Friday, Aug. 8 it was still hazy, but the sky gradually cleared through the night. I observed from about mid-night to 04:00. The 10 "new" objects I observed were:
NGC 4650, NGC 2655, NGC 2715, NGC 2403, IC 348, NGC 1624, NGC 1605, NGC 2126, IC 2149, NGC 2192.

On Saturday, Aug. 9 it was still hazy, warm, with a few clouds. Windy with no dew. I observed 12 "new" objects between mid-night and 04:00 (still hazy by 4 am). They were: Berk 87, IC 4996, NGC 6996, Cr 421, Cr 419, Cr 428, NGC 7031, IC 5146, Cr 463, Stock 5, Stock 6, Mrk 6.

My wife and I rented a cottage about 20 minutes south of Parry Sound, on Otter Lake. The vacation was strategically scheduled around new moon, of course!! Out of 6 nights I only had 1.5 clear ones. The rest were very cloudy and rainy. The sky was very dark, but I had a limited view due to trees, and only towards the north.

During this session I observed mostly galaxies in Camelopardalis. The 19 "new" objects observed were: NGC 1569, IC 342, Be 10, UGC 2855, NGC 1485, NGC 1530, NGC 1573, IC 334, IC 381, IC 391, NGC 2146, NGC 2146A, NGC 2314, NGC 2256, NGC 2258, UGC 3730, NGC 2441, NGC 2523, NGC 2551. By 04:15 it had clouded over. Here I am on the deck of the cottage with my 10-inch SCT.

Still from the cottage south of Parry Sound. The temperature was just above zero with no wind, and lots of dew. Observed 3 "new" objects before the sky clouded over around 00:30. Views of IC 289, NGC 7454, and Tom 5 were hampered by high clouds and haze.