Photograph of C/2009 R1 (McNaught)
The extraordinary heat wave seems to have passed the worst
at last. I wonder how people have coped with it.
Here is my observation of 103P/Hartley. Having continued
to photograph this comet with slow optics of the 70cm telescope, I was
thinking this comet was so slow to become brighter than 14th to 15th magnitude.
Then, looking at it through the 70cm scope this morning for the first time,
I was surprised. The coma, which hadn't showed up in photographs, was large
and shining brightly. The following are my visual observations:
2010UT m1 dia. DC Trans Seeinng Inst.
Sept.13.704 8.5 10 7 4/5 4/5 70cmL. 98X T.Seki
2010UT m1 dia. DC Trans Seeinng Inst.
Sept.13.704 8.5 10 7 4/5 4/5 70cmL. 98X T.Seki
There are always errors in visual estimate of large diffused
object like this. This comet, I thought, would not be visible, judging
from the photographs taken by slow optics, but it had actually been steadily
brightening. However, compared with the initial prediction, it is still
on the faint side. We should watch its future brightness changes.
After completing the observation with the 70cm telescope,
I moved to the observing shed to search the eastern sky with the 15cm binoculars
for the first time in many weeks. Generally, sky conditions were good.
I brought the binocular field very close to the spot where Comet Ikeya-Seki
had appeared on September 19, 1965. I remembered a bright waning moon had
been shining that night. Tonight, it was still 5 days earlier than the
day of the discovery. I saw a familiar pattern of stars. "This is
the time!" My winding watch was ticking the time, just like the moment
I had discovered the comet. It was 4 o'clock in the morning. The watch
brought back the memory of my elation of the discovery.