Saturday Morning Observing.

Had a good observing session last night from 02.00 - 04.25 local time. Seen a lovely white moon pillar extending for 15 degrees south of the moon, very unusual looking. Regulus was near by. Did anyone else notice if the famous reverse Nova RCrB looked different last night? I could have sworen it had faded slightly from mag 6.0 to the 6.3 - 6.4 range before dawn. Normally i can see this star easily with the naked eye under a full moon and in all sky conds but tonight i could only see it with averted vision even when it was placed at the zenith! Will recheck tonight.

With the 8.5" Dob i observed C/2006 Pojmanski, 73P fragments C and B. B is still the easiest to see however its central condensation has faded and shrunk in dia. There is talk that this comet may be fragmenting in two itself. I could see a tail pointing SW.

Fragment C's tail was washed out by Murk. The coma being located very close to a bright field star. Seen a nice Iridum flare and did a search for new comets in the eastern sky untill dark clouds and rain rolled in...keep an eye out for aurora activity tonight!

Clear skies

id anyone else notice if the famous reverse Nova RCrB looked different last night? I could have sworen it had faded slightly from mag 6.0 to the 6.3 - 6.4 range before dawn. Normally i can see this star easily with the naked eye under a full moon and in all sky conds but tonight i could only see it with averted vision even when it was placed at the zenith! Will recheck tonight.

Martin, here's the latest from aavso regarding R CrB...

www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/quickquick.pl?star=r%20crb

Keith..

Key Kieth thanks very much for that info. No other observers are reporting a drop in magnitude at all which was very strange as i was very sure the mag had dropped slightly...maybe it was the sky conds after all.

Maybe some day i will see it drop and maybe even see a new outburst of T CrB..that would be nice.

Thanks again.

I'll have a look myself tonight Martin, You'd be surprised at how many people all over the world look at this one ! It has'nt faded in a while, so it's due soon, but it is erratic so who knows.....

Maybe some day i will see it drop and maybe even see a new outburst of T CrB..that would be nice

No one has seen this baby blow since 1946!!! The last one before that was the year 1866!!!

One of the most intensly monitored stars, I've plenty of obs myself. It blows up to magnitude 2 from about 10.5, and quickly fades over about a week back to normal - really once in a lifetime star!

Keith..