{"id":70,"date":"2004-12-30T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-30T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/12\/30\/comet_machholz_1\/"},"modified":"2004-12-30T22:30:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-30T22:30:00","slug":"comet_machholz_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/12\/30\/comet_machholz_1\/","title":{"rendered":"C\/2004 Q2 (Machholz) – DEC 30, 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The above image is a graphite sketch redrawn based on the original digital sketch. The star field was generated by Starry Night Pro 5.8. Click image for larger version.<\/p>\n

Observation Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, the weather and my schedule hasn’t been cooperating too much lately for getting out under the stars with more than a pair of binoculars. Tonight, the clouds parted for a while, and the moon had yet to rise, so I took a look for Machholz at 10:30 pm. As the days go by, it keeps getting brighter. I’m still not sure how to go about estimating brightness for fuzzy things like this. But I could make out the thin ion tail with averted vision to the east-northeast, and what seemed to be a widening of the coma that would be the dust tail the south. I worked out a digital sketch over the course of 3 trips outside. I wasn’t dressed for the occasion, so I didn’t want to get everything put together for a pencil sketch. I worked up the sketch in Photoshop. I don’t think this is the way I’d like to do things very often. It doesn’t seem as precise, and it’s bad for dark adaptation.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after putting it together, I checked in Orion’s The Sky<\/i>, the only thing I had to fix was a slight adjustment to the position of 2 stars on the east side of the sketch. I don’t know about anyone else that observes comets or asteroids, but I get a charge out of plotting its position at a specific time, and the having it confirmed neatly by the planetarium software. The position of Machholz worked out to RA 3h 53m \/ Dec +07\u00ef\u00bf\u00bd 21′. I labeled the major stars that surrounded it. Based on the angular separation of those stars, I would estimate the portion of the coma visible to me was 19′ in diameter, while the ion tail extended 50′. Under direct vision I still pick up the faintest hint of green. I haven’t found any recent photos of the comet to verify that I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing, so if somebody sees anything fishy about this, let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Subject<\/b><\/td>\nComet Machholz (C\/2004 Q2)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classification<\/b><\/td>\nComet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Position<\/b><\/td>\n[RA 3:53 \/ Dec +07:21]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Size<\/b><\/td>\n~19′ x 23′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brightness<\/b><\/td>\n~4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Date\/Time<\/b><\/td>\n12\/30\/04 – 10:30 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Observing Loc.<\/b><\/td>\nFlagstaff, AZ – Home<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Instrument<\/b><\/td>\nOrion Worldview Binoculars 10 x 50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Eyepieces\/Mag.<\/b><\/td>\n10X<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seeing<\/b><\/td>\nUnrecorded<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Transparency<\/b><\/td>\nMag 5.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C\/2004 Q2 (Machholz) 20041230<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,44,45,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comet","category-planetary","category-sg-comet","category-sketch-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/12\/11\/comet_machholz\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":0},"title":"C\/2004 Q2 (Machholz) – DEC 11, 2004","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"C\/2004 Q2 20041211","rel":"","context":"In "Comet"","block_context":{"text":"Comet","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/comet\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/01\/01\/comet_machholz_2\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":1},"title":"C\/2004 Q2 (Machholz) – JAN 1, 2005","author":"jperez1690","date":"January 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"C\/2004 Q2 20050101","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2004\/08\/01\/published_mater\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":2},"title":"Published Material","author":"jperez1690","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated December 25, 2010 Books Astronomical Sketching: A Step-by-Step Introduction (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) By Richard Handy, David B. Moody, Jeremy Perez, Erika Rix, Sol Robbins.Published by Springer, 2007. Contributed three chapters: Comets, Star Clusters, and Nebulae. Stargazing with Binoculars Firefly book by Robin Scagell and David Frydman -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=thbeofve-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0387262407","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/01\/09\/comet_machholz_4\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":3},"title":"C\/2004 Q2 (Machholz) – JAN 6, 2005 Update","author":"jperez1690","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"C\/2004 Q2 20050106","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/02\/10\/something_turqu\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":4},"title":"Something Turquoise Sails North","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"20050210","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/11\/21\/november_19_200\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":5},"title":"November 19, 2005 – Don Machholz, Dinner, and the Clark Refractor","author":"jperez1690","date":"November 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"20051119","rel":"","context":"In "Observing Report"","block_context":{"text":"Observing Report","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/observing-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}