Sky Watch

Day 92: You might think that astronomy was an odd hobby for someone in the Pacific Northwest to want to take up, but with the approach of Comet Lovejoy, my desire for a good telescope was renewed. However, for the last two weeks, I've found myself wishing for a giant fan to blow the clouds away, and I was beginning to fear that any occasion for viewing the comet would be doomed by overcast conditions. I was watching the weather report closely, but NOAA seemed to have a very different definition for "partly cloudy" than what was happening in my sky. My fears were turning to despair until yesterday when I finally saw blue. However, by late afternoon, clouds had reappeared.

After walking nine miles, I ate dinner and treated myself to a hot bath and a cup of decaffeinated tea. What happened next was as certain as death and taxes: I sat down in my chair and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, it was almost bedime. The desire to crawl under the covers was strong, but I felt I really needed to check sky conditions, so I stepped outside in my nightie and looked up to see Orion, big as life, and the Pleiades as well. Those were just the pointers I needed to find Lovejoy! But I couldn't detect it with my naked eye, nor could I find it with binoculars. I was sure I was looking in the right spot, so I went back into the house, pulled on jeans and a fleece jacket, and carted a card table and the telescope out into the back yard. In an exceptional display of foresight, I had re-sighted the LED star-finder that afternoon after fiddling it out of whack by turning the wrong knobs when trying to turn it on. I pointed the LED at the target location and put my eye to the eyepiece. It was only necessary to pan a little bit before a fuzzy blob of light entered my field of view. I centered the comet in the 'scope and carefully changed eyepieces for a higher magnification which allowed me to distinguish the nucleus, if only faintly. I did not move up to the Barlow doubler because the comet nearly filled the field (it would have made a fuzzy object bigger but fuzzier). Needless to say, I was ecstatic with my "discovery," and now I'm anxious for the next astronomical event. After all, Lovejoy was a surprise to everyone.