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Before sunset, I braved the icy roads and drove to Golden Gardens Park. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of comet McNaught. The temperature was in the mid-to-low thirties and there was a brisk breeze. Even if I didn’t get a glimpse of the comet, watching the sunset was worth it.

I was fortunate to have several astronomers from the University of Washington standing next to me. They saw the comet before I did (not surprising) and helped me realize I was looking on the wrong side of where the sun set. They also let me, and several others, view the comet through their binoculars. Very exciting!

I was able to see the comet for at least 5 to 10 minutes before I was able to find it with my camera’s LCD viewfinder. It had to get darker before I could locate it. An optical viewfinder would have been an advantage in this situation.

I know that astronomers sometimes chill the optical sensors they use to reduce optical noise and increase sensitivity. I don’t know if the cold weather helped my camera, but after the sunset and the comet viewing, I was cranking up the van heater for the ride home. Brrrrr!

Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, WA

Comet McNaught information on Wikipedia.

NOTE: I’ve uploaded five of the best comet images to my flickr.com account. They are full sized images (big) and available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

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