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Comet Machholz C2004 Q2charted from 22/12/04 - 02/03/05 A2

October 9th 2006 John Flannery gave me a buzz early this evening with some knowledge of where to look for Comet Swan. So I got out my 10X50 Carl Zeiss Binos but was not to sure if I was seeing it, then I got a message that he could see it well in his 15X70 Celestrons, up in the mountains. So out to the car and get the gear, set up my 15X70 Celestrons and BINGO, rang John and he confirmed that I was indeed seeing SWAN in between two non discript stars with a nice triangle just above to the right. I made a quick sketch when the thin cloud cleared and here it is, the Comet is the fuzzy blob between the two lower stars in the sketch. The transparency was not great as it was in the glow of Bray and directly above a yellow street light, must look lovely from a dark place. Nice to see another fuzzy traveller, hope to check it in the Sky Watcher soon, any one else get a look ?

Comet SWAN 2006

Comet C2006 M4 SWAN October 10th 2006 I woke up early 05:00 and remembered that John said the comet was a better early bird. So I got up to check it out with the 15X70's, it was better placed toward the NE and the sky was clearer, even with the bright waning moon. You can see how 14CVh has moved around and the little triangle of 15CVh and 17CVh have also rotated round the pole. I clipped 14CVh out in my original scan as it was at the edge of the page, easy enough to do, but is is a key factor in placing the comet. Made this sketch at 05:20 Local Time and got a nice view of Saturn also:-)

Comet C2006 M4 SWAN Sky Watcher 200mm 25mm Meade eyepiece 19/10/06 Humidity 94% 19:00 UT Bootes Have to check out the stars for my Sky Watcher sketch, tried the 8mm TVP no good, tried the 10mm Kellner no good, 25 mm Meade was best tonight, and the binoculars were really good.

Comet C2006 M4 SWAN 15X70 Binoculars 20:38:00 UT 19/10/06 Bray Co Wicklow Bootes Mag ? 6.5 This evening I got my second look at Comet C2006 M4 SWAN it is brighter than last time maybe 6.5 a defined bright center with lots of nebulous material all around it. Not easy to see an tail but in my binoculars it was or seemed to be brighter toward my left looking at it tonight, happy to see it again. SWAN looked very well below and in the same fov as Seginus or Gamma Bootes. Earlier I had a look at it in my 200mm with a 25mm eyepiece and it looked, well the main bright point within it looked defined still hard to see a tail or even the direction the material was headed or the shape of the material. My 9V went in my red light, what a pain, I grabbed the only other torch in the house. Of course it was one of these million candle jobs from the garage, who needs a million candels to draw in the dark. I shoved it in a bush backward to take the glare off it, so I could at least see my dots/stars.

Comet 2006 M4 SWAN from Virginia Co Cavan Decided then to try out my 35 mm Kellner eyepiece in the Sky Watcher. Big eyepiece with 2 inch adapter. I placed SWAN in the upper left to get in some star patterns that may be recognised. October 24th 2006 22:03 UT Lat: 53:11:44N (53.1955) Lon: 6:06:31W (-6.1086) South is up. My sketch was at 22:03 UT below is the nearest data I could get for its position as it charges toward the wonderful M13 duet. Local time 23:15:05, 24 Oct (UTC 23:15:05, 24 Oct) Right Ascension (J2000): 15h 55m 17.6s Declination (J2000): 36° 9' 59" Constellation: Corona Borealis Magnitude: 8.2 Distance from Earth: 0.9974 AU Light time: 498 seconds

Comet 2006 SWAN Virginia The evening looked promising before I went to college, I was tempted to stay home and hunt for SWAN. The inevitable cloud arrived so out I went. Coming home the sky was clear, so I came in and straight through the house with my 15X 70's Ah ha!!! !!! there she blows, nice view, very nice. I did this sketch on black heavy Daler- Rowney paper with a new white Mitsubishi pencil, and a Conte Blanc to pick up for my blending stick. Not to sure if I like the way the black scanned, I like the pencil, but have to hold the red light at an angle to see the white on black in the dark. New to me white on black. 15X70 Celestron SkyMasters October 24th 2006 21:18 UT Lat: 53:11:44N (53.1955) Lon: 6:06:31W (-6.1086)

Comet Swan and M13 28/10/06 Mag 5 18:30 UT Daler Rowney 300gm paper Uniball Signo Mitsubishi White Pencil Conte Blanc Swan in my Soup I headed up to Virginia Co Cavan in Ireland in the hope of clear skies and wonderful darkness. C2006 M4 SWAN was going to be a superb binocular object with M13 in Hercules. Well I had wonderful darkness and a clear sky for about an hour. The Met Office described the country as being bathed in sub tropical moist Atlantic air. Viewing through this atmosphere was like looking at the M13 flyby through soup. I could not see a tail, SWAN seemed to be brighter than M13. As you can see by my sketch both objects just clipped inside my binocular view. I was happy to see and sketch this unique pairing.

First sketch of 17P Holmes October 24th 2007 Mag 3 Perseus

17/P Holmes Here is all I got from last night 25th October 2007 21:50 UT/FL1200/10mm/120X I had barlows at the ready to get in closer but fast thick cloud took any more viewing away for the rest of the evening. I had no time to see and place in any other stars in the FOV Very bright point like nucleus, very circular coma, and yes a delta or fan shape within. I had the thought, that the tail was perhaps on the side away from the Earth, and that it is much wider than the comet itself. Or that there is no tail yet and the material is jetting out evenly from the whole comet in a massive outburst. Perhaps this material will form a tail when it is finished flying out in an even way? Or the tail is cone shaped and is on this side of the comet, and very wide ?

Comet 17/P Holmes 26 October 2007/ 1200mm/8mm/150X/ Watercolor / Pastels/ Conte barlows did nothing for the image I had a 30 minute window in between clouds, to catch this icy visitor in my telescope. I had to shield my scope and my eyes form the moon light by hiding behind my house. First I looked in my 15X70 binos, and I could see a halo around the comet, a very different view to October 24th, I reckoned this had brightned to around Mag 2. I popped my 8mmTVP into the scope and oh yes this was a sketch I had to have. So here it is,cloud and rain here in Bray at the moment so most likely not look this evening. I am thinking up new ways of getting this comet, it is a challenge to sketch as it has so many properties to deal with. Hope it's there for a while longer.

Comet 17/P Holmes 28th October 2007 18:40 UT Mag 2 1200mm/8mm/150X Pastel/ Conte/ Black Paper Here is my sketch from yesterday evening. I had a longer look into the halo around the nucleus. The material emanating from the pin point center seemed to be heading in a more southerly direction than on the 26th. I could see darker areas fanning in the opposite direction in the inner halo. A star was visible just inside the outer halo. I managed to sketch in some stars but have not identified them yet. Because I could see a star through the out gassing then it must be very thin? The star was visually similar in size to the comet nucleus but a little dimmer. All this was visible even though there was a 17 day moon rising almost directly under the action.

Comet 17/P Holmes 29th October 2007 00:30 UT Mag 2 1200mm/8mm/150X Pastel/ Conte/ Black Paper Here is my sketch from later on past midnight. The coma looked different from earlier the nucleus had two stars for company which really did look like a split. The coma had a darker area and a bright area, with a ying and yang shape going on. Earlier when I sketched in the star in the outer coma, it looked like it was just in blackness like the coma had vanished in that area. In the second sketch the brightness within the coma seem more diffuse. The nucleus and the bright star seemed to enhance the light within the coma even though the star is lightyears away and the nucleus is millions of miles away ?? It was much harder to see detail within the coma after midnight as the comet was closer to the moon.

Comet 17P Holmes October 29th 18:30 UT Reflector 1200 FL/ 200mm/ 8mm TVP eyepiece giving 150X Mag 2 nice triangle of stars within the coma, and echoed outside to the south by two other stars