Friday, November 23, 2007

Binoculars for comets

It's been awhile since I have had clear skies, but the clouds finally parted last night and I was able to check on Comet17P/Holmes. In the week since I have seen it last, the comet has expanded, yet again, and as its light continues to expand over a wider area, the comet becomes harder to see. With the full moon last night, I could just see it in my Nikon 7x50 Prostar binocular. Thinking I'd get a better look with my 10x binocular, I then tried my Nikon 10x70 Prostar. Still visible, but the even that little bit of extra magnification made the comet stand out a bit less against the sky background. A spotting scope at 20x was even worse. Sometimes, less really is more.
 
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