McNaught’s Best View Yet

Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) – June 15, 2010
By Juanchin

Object : Comet C/2009 R1 McNaught
Date : June 15, 2010
Time : 03:00 LST / 10:00 UT
Location : Wickenburg Arizona USA
Instrument : Orion 25 x 100 FOV 2.5 Deg.
Magnitude : ~ 6.5
Weather : Dark and clear sky, slightly gusty winds, cool upper 70’s with a chance of Sagittarids! : )

Comments :
A major prediction for this comet was that perhaps being a first timer to swing around our Sun, it might have a dramatic outburst display like that of Comet Holmes.
Last week of June the 9th, I sketched McNaught while it passed by M34, but the Moon was the factor that was robbing me of some extra details. Details that tonight
were more noticeable. The ionic tail is longer, I’d say at least over 1.5 Degrees. A fine thin tail stretching subtlely into a North-Northwest direction. Also, what I believed was
the dust tail, a spur emanating from the coma and shooting towards the West was visible. It kind of pointed towards the bright yellow star of Delta Persei.
The coma itself showed its greenish tint along with a very bright white core. I’m not very precise on determining the size of the coma but I’d say it was in the vicinity of 10 arcminutes.(Someone can help me here, will appreciate) ; ) I noticed the comet had shifted during the course of about 1 hour. A star North of the comet and grazing the tail was now on the the Southwest side and embedded close to the dust tail. By a wild guess again, this comet had traveled almost its own coma diameter in that 1 hour time lapse.

This will be my last chase for comet McNaught, twilight starts creeping very fast soon after 11:00 UT. It hinders any chance to see the comet rise higher and the dawn light starts washing everything away. As the days progress the comet will be lower and lower into the horizon and finally out of sight. I enjoyed every bit of observation and I hope there are more of you out there who did the same and sketched it.

Wishing all clear and dark skies,

Juanchin

P.S. I only saw about 3 Sagittarids that night, very bright with short trains !!!