Leonard In The Sky ...

... with astronomy friends.

This past Sunday, I woke up in the middle of the night, got dressed, grabbed my gear, and went out in to cold. And it was cold. I drove down Route 206 to Atsion Field. There I met a fellow astronomy club member Joe, who had arrived sufficiently earlier to set up his scope and find the comet. Later another club member, Steve, would join us. It was very nice to be out with like minded folks under the stars.

We were there to see Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1), to be specific. The first comet found in 2021.

I had set up everything the evening prior. And was ready to go. 

The best laid plans ...

This is the first shot after I achieved focus. Note the pinpoint(-ish) stars. (Bigificaiton is suggested for all the images in this post.)

Finally, I found it (the green fuzzy bit). But the stars ...

No longer points. Nope, a bit on blobish side.  Grrr ...

It seems that I mounted the camera "backwards" on the ballhead. And thus the knob for the ballhead was hitting the mounting plate release lever. As Joe can attest, it took awhile for me to figure this out. Somewhere along the way I tweaked the focus. Of course, it looked fine on the small screen of the camera.

Note the location of the comet relative to the stars. In the time we observed it moved a noticeable amount. Very cool to see.

If you look closely at this image, you'll see a meteor trail or satellite track just to the left of the comet. It is very faint in the image. We saw several meteors in the two plus hours we were there. And one rather bright satellite as we were preparing to depart.

We observed until it got too cold (my hands were actually in pain, as I had to take my gloves off to futz with the mount) and the Sun began to intrude on the night.

☄️  💫  ⭐️  💫  ☄️

This comet was discovered on January 3, 2021. And it was expected to be the 'best' comet of 2021. And it was. Although for small values of best. It may become a naked eye object, barely, before it disappears in the glow of the sun. It will then become an evening object. albeit low in the sky, for northern hemisphere observes, once it reappears.

I had not been thinking of this comet until the last meeting of my astronomy club, when Joe mentioned plans to go out Sunday morning. I'm glad he did.