Anyone see the comet go by M57 last night ??

Last night i got a better look at the comet from 02.00 - 03.30 when Lyra was high in the sky to the east of the Meridian. Fragment B was a beautiful sight in the 10X50s as a greenish bright misty patch close to the binary star Epsilon Lyrae sporting a wedge shaped coma in the anti - solar direction with soft stellar central condensation and a slender dust tail pointing to the SW, the coma looked to have good structure. The sky was terrible with dense murk illuminated by strong moonlight trans= 2 -3 seeing= 9 however despite these horrible conditions i was delighted and shocked to see fragment B with the naked eye as a hazy patch first with averted vision then direct vision..what a beautiful sight!!! I spent along time just standing there watching it!!!! Mag: 5.0 Dia: 15' (half a moon diameter) DC: 6.

Heres a quick sketch through the binos..

While in Kerry, the skies were too hazy to see the comet on Sunday night. Monday night during an observing session I saw it visually no problem from Portmagee near Valentia, even with a waxing Gibbous Moon! Pristine clear skies down there... :shock:

Seanie.

Check out APOD today

WOW ... the APOD imge is stunning .... even the little galaxy next to M57 is visible!

Here's the direct link: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060511.html

I got my best look yet at fragment B on wednesday night (10th) from 23.00 - 03.30. In Johns 8.5" F/7 dobsonian with 40mm eyepiece the comet was a beautiful object sporting an 'arrow' or 'spear' shaped coma with a tiny star like false nucleus, running from this was a bright slender spine that merged with the dust tail, the coma consisted of a fainter fan shaped dusty material at a broad angle to the FN embedded with numerous delicate gas streamers. What absoutely astonished me was the rapid speed of the comet against the background stars! which is evident on my quick sketch made at 2 different times (top= scope. bottom= binos), i could actually see the comet drifting across the telescopic field in 'near' real time which was both incredible and frightening! In the 10X50s the comet was a large bright object in the same field as 20 and 21 Lyrae with a slender dust tail. I was amazed to see the comet with the naked eye as a 5th mag patch of light to the east of Vega with a dia of 15', DC6 this was a suprise as the sky was in very poor shape, Trans= 3-4 seeing= 9 with dense murk illuninated by bright moonlight. Comet is putting on a nice show!

Theres a fairly poor shot of M57 on APOD today as well. Very foggy shot or something