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Reports from Geisei Observatory<February 10, 2000>


I rushed to the observatory as soon as guitar lessons were finished. When I stopped by at a service station in Nangoku City on my way, the attendant said, "You are the observatory's Mr. Tsutomu Seki, aren't you? I admire your work in the middle of the cold." The temperature was about 5 degrees centigrade in the early evening. It will probably drop to the freezing point at midnight.

I observed LINEAR C/1999 L3, which was supposed to be brightening with the 20cm refractor at 66x. It is vaguely visible. The total magnitude was 11.8-12.0 and the coma was 2.5' in diameter. (In the photograph it was15m.)

After finishing a 7-hour observation by the 60cm telescope in the icy dome, I went out to search the northeast sky with the 12cm binoculars. A number of globulars and planetaries drifted into the eyepiece field. They were quite clear because the air was transparent. These remind me of the days of my comet search in Kochi.

The bluish color of Venus rising in the southeast was striking. It was at 5:10 am on February 10. The whole sky suddenly brightened as if the darkness was broken by light of a lantern.
5:10 am on February 10, 2000
A 105mm f/5.6 lens
on Fuji N Color 400 film
Venus shining at daybreak







Copyright (C) 2000 Tsutomu Seki.