|
Comet: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
Satellites: ISS with Space X Dragon following
Planets: Jupiter, Saturn
Location: Perrier home in Middle Sackville
Date: 2020-08-01
Time: 10:20 PM - 10:25 PM ADT
Equipment: Visual, 10x42 IS Binoculars
Temperature: 19° C - 19° C
Transparency: Fair
Seeing: Fair
Clear, no wind.
|
Comet: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Identified, not Observed & Not entered into Logbook or database:
Coma Berenices, Melotte 111, Moon, Ursa Minor
Location: Home
Date: 2020-08-01
Time: 10:40 PM - 11:56 PM ADT
Equipment: Visual, 10x42 IS Binoculars
Temperature: 18° C - 14° C
SQM: 18.54 - 18.63
Transparency: Fair
Seeing: Fair
|
|
Satellites
Sitting around their bonfire, we noticed stars appearing in the wide clearing above our heads. There was also two very bright objects going across the sky - a larger brighter object that was a little higher than the smaller one following at the same rate of speed. We had just received a message that the ISS was rising. What we were witnessing was the ISS being followed by the Space X Dragon that had just left the ISS to come home!
Comet NEOWISE
Just before we left the family bonfire, we stood in their backyard away from the lights and saw NEOWISE above one of their trees adjacent to the driveway. The Moon hadn't risen enough to affect our view too much. It was still a faint fuzzy but at this point of the evening you could use direct vision to see it.
Jupiter
Jupiter and Saturn were near the Moon. We pointed them out to William who immediately shared it with his parents. Using binoculars we could see three moons but not sure if Europa was distinguishable.
|
We left to go home to get a better sense of where NEOWISE was located in our night skies.
Canes Venatici
Time: 10:40 PM - 10:55 PM ADT
The prime reason for observing this evening was the Comet NEOWISE; however, I was also curious about the stars I saw above α CVn (Cor Caroli).
Comet NEOWISE
I used the stars in Melotte 111 to begin the search for the comet - 14 Com, 16, Com, 17 Com, 18 Com, 21 Com and 22 Com. Found it just above the triangle formed by 18 Com, 21 Com and 22 Com. AS Roy Bishop described it, "4° SE of γ Com, less than 3° from the North Galactic Pole and only 1° from NGC 4565...magnitude now near +6."
|
