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September 2001

• September 18
It was fine this morning, too. P/2001 Q2 looked a little fainter at magnitude 11.5 in the 20cm refractor and the coma was about 3' across. It was in the vicinity of Gemini. A 15-cm aperture would be able to discover it if carefully searched.
There was no effect of moonlight light this morning and the autumn zodiacal light was magnificent.
At 4 am I completed all the work inside the dome and walked up to the hill to sweep very low altitude skies using the 9cm comet seeker at 17x. Leo was now rising and at 4.10am Venus showed its awesome intense light above the forests.

• September 16
The sky was deep-blue, reminiscent of typical fine autumn days and it was a magnificent starry night tonight.
Gegenschein (counterglow) was visible around 23.00 tonight the first time in many days. It was near Pisces between Pegasus and Fomalhaut. It was about 1/5 as bright as the Milky Way in the west.
For about 10 minutes from about 2.40 am I saw a strange light near Mira in Cetus. A 4th magnitude star flashed every 9 seconds. Usually there is no star seen at that position. The star remained at the same position while gradually becoming fainter. An artificial satellite will change its positions. Is it a geo-stationary satellite? It was located at 2h00m in RA and exactly 0 degree in declination. For about 10 minutes it flashed every 9 seconds.
Early this morning I searched the eastern sky the first time in many days. The sky was clear. There was no sign of a comet along the path of the Kreutz group. The 9th-magnitude open cluster M48 was visible, which is near the discovery position of Comet Ikeya-Seki of 1965. The zodiacal light was paled by moonlight.



Copyright (C) 2001 Tsutomu Seki.