(SNES) Comet 2000 Linear WM1 - what's up?

[Albireo54@aol.com]

Hi Les,

Good to hear from you.....I take it that your new Internet connection is in 
place and working fine?

In a message dated 12/4/01 9:08:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
colemans@riconnect.com writes:

<< I'd love to take credit for the revised information [Sirius' new 
brightness], but credit for this one belongs to someone else: >>

OK, perhaps the mystery contributor will speak up and take due credit.  :o)

Of course, none of the stars (or galaxies and other objects) have actually 
faded - it's just that experts are now using a different yardstick - 
hopefully a more realistic one!
Down at FDO we'll scarcely notice, observationally, any of the new values for 
the stars. But we will immediately see the effects of the revised magnitudes 
for extended objects of all kinds. As an example, the well know Ring Nebula, 
M57, was formerly listed at magnitude 9.0. It now is 9.7 - an implied 
"fading" of nearly 50%. But the new number does seem to fit with many 
observations of our members - the Ring has been notoriously difficult to spot 
in even large binoculars. The 9.7 value explains why.

What has apparently NOT brightened as expected is Comet 2000 Linear WM1. Due 
to be in the 4.6 to 4.7 range, I observed it last night at 6 PM (before 
moonrise) and found it to be much fainter than that - I believe it is still 
below magnitude 6.0. It is an easy object in binoculars, but dimmer than I 
expected.

I encourage all readers to get out and observe this comet while it is still 
relatively high in the evening sky, and before moonrise (8:08 PM tonight). It 
is expected to cloud up for quite a while starting tonight, but take a look 
about an hour after sunset. At 6 PM this evening (full darkness) the comet 
will be 2 degrees (4 moon widths) to the NW (upper right) of the 3.5 
magnitude star 31 Eta Ceti. That location will be 33 degrees above the SE 
horizon at that hour.

We can all take a look at Comet Linear in a variety of equipment down at FDO 
on Friday - assuming the skies cooperate! Partly cloudy is the forecast - 
which means it could be just about anything!

:o)
Doug Stewart
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