103 P Hartley 2 from Kildare

Many thanks to Michael O'Connell for the invite to Kildare to
observe Comet Hartley and to Declan Molloy for bringing his 16 inch dob
along, a lovely scope built by Michael. What a great evening, I enjoy comets even if they are sometimes rather faint , hope to see it again.

Two sketches
103P Hartley 2 16inch dob, 20 mm eyepiece, FL 1830mm, 91X Oct 11th 2010 , 20:45 UT, Seeing good to start. Double Cluster and M31 naked eye objects.Bortle Dark Scale 4

I observed the nucleus as being a dull white colour , not round , a bit elongated . The coma seemed to me to have an inner brighter shell surrounded by an outer almost invisible very diffuse area. The coma appeared to be slightly bow shock shaped but the coma as a whole was very non defined .

In both 16 inch dob sketches , stars were visible through the inner coma. North is up in video.
The three stars in a row visible in both sketches are mag+11.2, +11.2, +12.2 in order running towards the comet.
No green colour visible at all. Seeing deteoriated between sketches.

Sketches were done at the eyepiece , with a white gel pen , conte and pastel on black paper.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Chair IFAS

It was great to have yourself and Declan over for some observing (even if I spent most of the time at the computer).
It was good to see the comet. Not near as bright as last year's spectacle. Interesting to see all the same. Easy enough to see in your binos. Good sketches you got there. The motion of the comet is very clear.

Michael.

Great work again Dee, well done. Down here in Waterford it was a difficult object to track and image. It was very faint in the camera!!

Yes I was doing my head in trying to see it in Bray , and was totally
delighted to visit Kildare and a BIG dob for a sketch.
Cannot thank Declan enough for setting up the 16 inch
and Michael for setting up the observing session, fun ,advice,and of course the
much needed tea and biscuits.

Love Comets

Deirdre Kelleghan
Vice Chair IFAS