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June 2002

• June 5 I haven't had a chance to observe at the observatory for some time because of bad weather. It is hazy tonight too and the air fiercely reflects glow from the streets. I observed Comet Ikeya-Zhang the first time in several days. In the 20cm telescope the large coma looked fuzzy like a patch of fog and the central condensation was weak. No tail was visible. It was a little brighter than magnitude 7. Though it was exposed for about 5 minutes on old 6415 film, it did not show up well. Nearby bright stars were a double with magnitude 6.0 and 6.6 components. The comet was much fainter than these stars. From 3.30 am I searched the northeastern sky for about 30 minutes. The star field in the Milky Way was beautiful. This part of the sky was relatively free of air pollution, but I didn't notice anything unusual.
A five-minute exposure from 23:10 June 5, 2002 on TP6415 film 60cm f/3.5 reflector at Geisei Observatory

• June 5
I haven't had a chance to observe at the observatory for some time because of bad weather. It is hazy tonight too and the air fiercely reflects glow from the streets.
I observed Comet Ikeya-Zhang the first time in several days. In the 20cm telescope the large coma looked fuzzy like a patch of fog and the central condensation was weak. No tail was visible. It was a little brighter than magnitude 7. Though it was exposed for about 5 minutes on old 6415 film, it did not show up well. Nearby bright stars were a double with magnitude 6.0 and 6.6 components. The comet was much fainter than these stars.
From 3.30 am I searched the northeastern sky for about 30 minutes. The star field in the Milky Way was beautiful. This part of the sky was relatively free of air pollution, but I didn't notice anything unusual.

A five-minute exposure from 23:10 June 5, 2002
on TP6415 film
60cm f/3.5 reflector at Geisei Observatory