Astronomical Sketching: A Step-by-Step Introduction
(Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)

(published by Springer).

Jeremy,

I live here in Flagstaff, too. I tried to view the comet on Sunday the 14th and it was too cloudy and the sky was filled with high altitude ice clouds. Pretty frustrating. Had I bittered the cold I think I would have gotten a glimpse of it as you did on that day.

However on the 15th the sky was much clearer. I saw it immediately after I left the house at 10:15 AM.

I got the glimpse of it when I covered the sun with my hand. I would say that it was maybe 6 deg away and my estimation of its magnitude was about -4 or more as Venus at the time was -3.9. It is hard to tell the magnitude when the comet is still so close to the sun. But I certainly think that it must have been brighter as it was so close the sun's glare.

When I got to work at Quality Connections here in Flagstaff on Huntington Drive. I stood outside and viewed it again. That was at 11:00 AM. It was quite visible and I scanned to the east and was able to spot Venus. Still my sense of the comet's brilliance was that it being closer to the sun was certainly brighter than Venus.

I could see with without optical aid a very faint cone shaped cloud like tail. Perhaps .5 degree or maybe more long.

I called out some of my co-workers to view it as well to confirm my sightings. At first they did not see it but when I showed them how to spot it it quite apparent to them.

I watched it on and off till 3:00 PM when the haze made it more difficult to see. But Venus was still high and very clear. Mag -3.9 to -4?

Then the next day, the 16th, I saw it at the same times 10:00 Am to 3:00 PM. Again I had my co-workers view it and they were amazed to have seen it more clearly than the day before, for it had moved out and away from the sun's glare. My perception of it was that it appeared brighter than Venus, much more so than the day before. The tail was not as distinct though. It with no optical enhancement looked like a lopsided cloud with a starlike point toward the sun.

Then I saw it again on the 17th, and then again on the 18th. At each sighting the location at 12:00 PM was different than the previous day. And the distance from the sun increased so that on the last sighting it is my estimate that it was mabye 10 to 12 degrees away from the sun. One could actually trace the orbit of the comet over these four days it went from 6 degrees to nearly 12 tracking down toward the south and to the west.

Then later that last night on the 18th, I went up to USGS and saw Venus set. The upper part of the tail was visible. Shafts of pale light going up. I counted three very clearly, and maybe several more with averted vision.

All told it was an amazing thing to have finally seen a daylight comet. I missed Ikeya Seki in 1965 because no one then told me how to look for it in the day. I did not even see it in night. So this sighting over those four days was quite gratifying.

Now the only regret I have is that I did not make a record of it other than the impression that I made in showing others how to see it.

However, my memory is quite good of this remarkable comet and how I viewed it and I would like to make a drawing with my hands up blocking the sun and showing what I could see with my naked eye.

I can draw well and I think that that is what I will do. However, do you know if photoshop can be used? I could take a photo of my hand as I held them up against the sky and then after that is done draw in how I remember seeing the comet. Do you think that this could be done? I don't have any experience with photoshop.

Steve Schoner
Flagstaff, AZ

Steve, that was a great report about your midday observations of the comet. I tried to find it on the 15th and 16th from work during lunch, but didn't spot it. I was definitely not dressed for the chill and wind we had on those days and wasn't feeling very patient as I tried to find it. I'm glad you were able to observe it multiple days in a row as well as catch some of the emerging synchronic bands later in the week. I think that photographing your hand against the sky and using that as a template for a sketch of the comet is an excellent idea. It's definitely possible to sketch the comet in Photoshop. That's what I did for all three of my twilight observations. The problem is that it can be a bit tricky to get Photoshop to produce a sketch that looks the way you want, particularly if you are new to the program. On my list of things to do, I plan to draw up a tutorial about how I produced those digital comet sketches with Photoshop. I'm not sure when I'll be able to put that together though. Have you considered taking a photo of your hand against the sky, printing that out, and then using it as a template to do a hand-drawn sketch of the comet? If you end up doing it, let me know. I'd love to see the result.

Jeremy

I love your site! Of course I could be prejudice remembering our fun times together.

Recently I went down to Rocky Point and slept out on the patio of the beach house where we were staying.
Incredible vision at night. Awesome is a word used to often. Should be reserved for a star filled night. Oh,,,,,,,,the milky way. Almost too much to take in. Night after night the beauty of it all.
Thanks for your great site!
I shared it with one of my employers who is a school teacher.

Joan Benton

Hi Joan! I'm glad you stopped by the website.

Staring up into an unpolluted, star-filled sky is something that goes beyond words to describe. All too often, people don't even realize that the night sky can look so majestic. Let me know if you or your employer have any questions. Sorry we missed you when we were in Phoenix last month.

Take care,
Jeremy

Hey Jeremy!
I found that you added my site to your links and I thought I would pay you back and now I have your site in my links. I wanted to know if you were interested in some sort of partnership between our websites, meaning that we could make "guest" appearances on each other's websites, mutually posting articles and creating a bond between our readers, and therefore increasing our audience... Drop me an email if you're interested

Hi Clement, thanks for your comment. I've sent an email your way.

Jeremy