Such a clear night tonight, and it was the first day of classes for the spring term. The Observational Astronomy (Astro-3) class came out to peruse the various telescope types, look at the insides of a Schmidt-Cassegrain catadioptric, and then check out a bright comet through the scopes. Visually, Comet Garradd was not all that striking, appearing as one of the ubiquitous fuzz-balls that we all know and love in eyepiece astronomy. We got the robotic dome going, and that makes a big difference. Here is a one minute integration through a V filter of the comet using the robotic telescope.
Mar
21
2012