On my third venture (solo) out onto the lake around sunset, I thought I'd succeeded in seeing ... the ancient Atlas comet I had been seeking! But it turns out that what I saw was actually a contrail fragment - bah! What a bummer. It still looked pretty impressive, but the angle of the tail trail just didn't seem right.
A pretty impressive con!
So, another venture out to view the night sky was needed, to restore my pride, and to actually, definitively SEE the 80,000 year reappearance of the comet with my own eyes. I also decided I needed a witness this time, to verify the sighting, and make sure I wasn't on the wrong track again! We drove to the dog park near the Carroll quarry, and waited for darkness. This time we did see the beautiful comet, using binoculars. It wasn't very bright, and I didn't get ANY photos, but it looked to me as if it had a mini milky way trailing along behind it. So, that's a wrap, and I can now put the comet chasing to bed - goodnight!
Here's a much more fabulous capture of what I saw, captured on the West coast by my talented daughter, Lucy
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| Photo: Lucy Schultz |
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