One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 27, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1996_0309-16_DeathValley.htm)
(As posted to HP-internal newsgroup hpnc.general, without editing to past-tense later:)
Last night I comet-chased past 1 am. What I saw was absolutely magnificent in size and color. Folks, this (Comet Hyakutake) is truly the comet of the century. You owe it to yourself to go see it. Take your children too.
Note well: If you don't see the huge tail, you have not truly seen this comet. I feel sorry for all the people who get just a quick glance from a city and, being conditioned by sci-fi TV and movies, say, "is that all there is?" Last night the tail stretched as far as the distance from the North Star to the bottom of the bowl of the Big Dipper and 50% more! It was like an enormous searchlight beam across the sky. The tail is very, very big, but very dim. To see it you must make an effort!
1. You must have dark skies. That means:
1a. You must have virtually no light pollution. You must drive until you can tell you are out of it because you can see where it is, appearing as a pallid bowl of light in the sky, and that you're not inside it. The sky must look nearly black between the stars.
1b. You must wait for the moon to set. Last night it set at about midnight. It will get 40 minutes later each night. Yes -- this means you will have to be up at 1 am or later.
2. You must have dark-adapted eyes. Don't expect to get out of your car and immediately get the best view. Choose a site where other people won't blind you with their lights. Allow 5-10 minutes or more for your eyes to dark-adapt before you quit observing.
3. You must do it soon. The comet passed closest to the earth Monday morning. It is rapidly leaving our area, getting smaller although possibly brighter for a while; and the moon is getting brighter and later every day.
I suggest you also bring decent binoculars so you can admire the brightness and color of the central coma, and watch the comet move against the stars in a matter of half an hour or less. You do not need a telescope to enjoy this spectacle.
For your amusement, the rest of my story:
Last night after seeing the comet many times out car and house windows, I headed up to Dixon Dam west of Fort Collins at about 2330. There were a phenomenal number of cars coming and going. It was heartening to see so many people, mainly college kids, going to the trouble of coming up to view the comet. But the cars came and went about every two minutes, and few people had enough sense to turn off their headlights! Quite a few cars just turned around without even stopping... The crowds continued until past midnight.
I spent over an hour up there admiring a moderately-long tail, taking more photos, sharing my binoculars, answering lots of questions -- how can so many know so little about so much? -- watching a lovely moonset across Horsetooth Reservoir, and trying to keep warm.
Finally at about 0030 I decided that I owed it to myself to get further out of town. I drove up to the far end of the parking lot at Horsetooth Mountain Park [now Horsetooth Mountain Open Space], where it was surprisingly dark -- quite adequate. [And back then parking was free!]
As soon as I got out of the car I was completely blown away. I could not believe that the tail stretched about three times further than I could detect from Dixon Dam. It was astonishing. Despite being numb with the bitter cold, I studied and photographed it for a long while... Then I drove home. Sure enough, from my house in the middle of town, I could barely see a tail at all.
(Next trip report: 1996_0510-12_KT,GSDNM,Shavano.htm)