USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 31 March 2002

Subject:	Comet Ikeya-Zhang in ETX 90RA
Sent:	Saturday, March 30, 2002 12:33:01
From:	martyn@starmail.co.za
Yesterday evening, 29th of march 2002 at 19:30UT I observed the comet
Ikeya-Zhang through the ETX90RA with various eyepieces. Included is a
drawing I made which gives a very good impression of what I saw in the
SP 15mm eyepiece at 83X. The scope was mounted Alt-Az on the new #884
tripod, which continues to be an excellent buy.

At 48X, some fanning out of the tail (dust?) was visible to the right of
the tail. There was a central condensation visible in de coma, which
became more clearly visible in de SP15mm and the SP9.7mm. I did not see
any specific detail in the tail, nor did I notice any color. In the
SP6.4mm at 195X this central condensation was visible with averted
vision and represented itself as an irregular (not round) "bright"
patch. I was hoping to find evidence of a breakup of the nucleus, but I
was not so lucky. The image was fairly soft due to the comet's low
altitude.

I started viewing the comet at the time the moon was rising, so
moonlight did not drown out the comet too much yet. An hour later this
was different.

best regards,
martyn
observing from the netherlands

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