[APML] Observing Report: The visual search for C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)

["Richard Klappal" <klappal@xnet.com>]

I went out this evening, leaving about 1/2 hr before sunset to find a place
with a clear southwest horizon. Went west on Jericho Rd for a while, then
south on Nelson and West on McDermott, putting me about at the Kane/Dekalb
(IL, USA) county line, southwest of Big Rock.  A good spot for one that was
just the entrance to a cornfield, right on the road. (Not a single car in
the 1-1/2 hrs I was there!

I set up my camera, and got my binoculars out.
The sun went down (19:56).
There's Venus (Mag -4.5).
There's Jupiter (Mag -2.2)
There's Sirius (Mag -1.46)
...
Found Polaris (Mag 2.0)
C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) is supposed to be Mag 1.0, but it is only about 10 degrees
above the horizon. Should be visible, but the bottom 10-15 degrees above the
horizon is brown--the wind is around 15-20 miles/hour, and the prairie and
fields are blowing across the sky.
Through the binoculars--maybe!  I keep thinking I see something, bigger and
fuzzier than a star, but through the dirt, and the wind is shaking me and
the binoculars (tripod & all!).
Take a bunch of pictures--start with auto-exposure for a while.  Let it try
to make the sky look like photographic "average". The comet should be
brighter.  Can't see anything in the camera (Digital Sony). But the display
doesn't have as many pixels as the real image, so I'll just keep it up where
I think the comet is.

Give up about 9pm.  The comet, if its there, is about in the trees, and is
definitely in the airborne dirt.

Get home; load the images into the computer; inspect closely.
Imagination says yes, well maybe, in one image, but it takes some pretty
strong wishing. Without trying to match the skymap with the photos, I'd
never guess anything was there, and there probably isn't anything in the
image but wishful thinking.

I'll try again in a few days; maybe the wind & dirt will be down and the
comet a bit higher.

Oh Well...




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