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2012

Tue, Dec 25

I journeyed to Australia last month for the total solar eclipse on Nov 14 2012. It was very successful and exciting. It is my third time to see the totality. Meanwhile, the predawn prior to the totality has witnessed my first time to clearly observe Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Furthermore, I met my friend Shigeki Murakami from Japan for the first time although we have been in correspondence for some years. I will present a special page for my journey to Australia, and, particularly expound my experience under the great shadow.

The weather in Canton since I returned from Australia had been outrageously nasty. Precipitation around the period was significantly higher than normal. On Dec 19 evening the weather turned clear yet it became overcast again past 3 a.m. Eventually yesterday predawn came the chance for comer-hunt. Local temperature dropped down considerably and scored the lowest score in the second half of the year -- only 3.4 Celsius. Plus gusts of chilly wind, I had to wear thick clothes to keep me warm.

Before the start of the session I decided to observe comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) for the first time. On training the seeker to the predicted position, I immediately recognized it as a patch of bright and condensed spot with a decent westward tail. I felt that were it unknown I would be fully capable of making a discovery. On Dec 23.85 UT, m1 = 9.1, Dia. = 3', DC = 6, 7' tail in P.A. 270°. Sketch.

I started sweeping from 6 Boo at 4:41 a.m. As is often the case the transparency at low altitudes was not optimal. I interrupted the sweep at 4:55 a.m. as I felt extreme cold from my unsocked feet. I resumed the session at 5:01 a.m. with socks on from where I paused. However I had to pause again at 5:46 a.m. for the chilly winds like a sword kept torturing my head and neck, and I had to swiftly go indoors to put on a scarf and a cap. I serendipitously visually glimpsed a bright star very close to Dubhe (α UMa) at 5:56 a.m. It moved and brightened steadily from Ursa Major towards Leo, and headed to Sextant with a declining brightness. According to information provided by Heavens-Above.com, the object is designated 2004-012-C in International Designation Code, launched by China in Apr 2004.

I did not intend to keep monitoring the full path of the object but carried on the sweep. As expected, no authentically fuzzy object was picked up in the swept region. When I ended the session at 6:15 a.m. Venus and Saturn were emitting sentimentally. Yet it did not last for long as some clouds rolled in and eclipsed the stars.

I woke up this predawn at 4 a.m., only finding myself overcast. Thereby I went on to sleep.

Several days ago I noticed that several road lights were newly equipped along the paths around the apartment. I deeply felt that it would be my doomsday once these lights are put into use. I must treasure every clear night from now on.

Mon, Nov 05

Last month has witnessed several clear moonless nights, and I managed to conduct predawn hunting sessions thrice. On Oct 18 I swept from the region close to the border between Gemini and Cancer at 3:51 a.m. Throughout this session I disappointedly failed to pick up any DSOs owing to some fog. The sweep was ended at 5:34 a.m.

The second session was conducted on Oct 22 predawn when the air was very humid. I started searching from 34 Lyn at 3:52 a.m. Merely over an hour later, I eventually succeeded in sighting two DSOs -- M 97 and M 108, with specific attention, in appearance of a fuzzy roundish disk and an elongated narrow faint wisp respectively. At 5:05 a.m. I saw another galaxy NGC 3898 yet again by paying great attention. The whole session was put to an end at 5:40 a.m.

The third predawn session was started at 4:41 a.m. on Oct 26 at the region several degrees to the north of Talitha in Ursa Major. Thence it was extremely humid with heavy fog, however, the transparency was surprisingly satisfactory on the contrary. I thought it would be meaningless to perform a session under such circumstances, yet I found myself completely wrong as Canopus appeared shining energetically piercing the fog in the south. I should have started the session earlier. When sweeping past the region to the northeast of Merak, I made great effort to see if I could sight galaxies NGC 3613 and NGC 3610. But it finally turned out to be vain; I saw nothing convincible. I ended the sweep at 5:34 a.m. As twilight brightened, I realized that the scope had been covered with myriads and billions of droplets, and my star chart had been thoroughly sopped as well!

It always deeply dismays and hurts you if you find that light pollution becomes an inevitable trend threatening the observation site and consequently the sky appears paler and paler at night. The starry night has gone forever, and the Milky Way is no longer gleaming majestically and magnificently across the heaven. These are exactly what occurred to me. I feel myself has been abandoned by the Lord of Nature.

Tue, Oct 02

I conducted two sessions consecutively on Sep 27 and 28 predawn under relatively good weather conditions. I started sweeping from Pollux at 3:55 a.m. on Sep 27. I stumbled upon a fuzzy appearance object at around 4:05 a.m. when sweeping downwards in Lynx at 31x, however, it was only proven illusion, possibly owing to my sleepiness. The session ended at 5:32 a.m., without any harvest of sighting galaxies or nebulae. Transparency in low altitudes improved slightly in the second session. I started sweeping from Castor posterior to moonset at 4:33 a.m. Frankly Castor was too high in altitudes to be constrained in my ordinary search region, however, I found the stars in Lynx faint but just commenced from the azimuth of Castor thence. I ended the session at 5:30 a.m., yet again without picking up any galaxies.

Alas light pollution has been becoming more and more serious at my site. Perhaps I need more powerful weapon to sustain my visual search for comets. A new comet seeker in greater aperture will be a good idea to combat against the contamination to some extent, through which I may pick up far more interesting DSOs than now do I. Hopefully I could manage to upgrade my capability in the near future.

Tue, Sep 18

Unfortunately the "suspect" I saw on Aug 28 predawn was not proved authentic. I have asked my friends Xing Gao and Akimasa Nakamura for help to try to confirm the object, however, the initial three days saw nasty weather from these sites, and the fourth day came the news from Akimasa that on Aug 31.46 UT Hidetaka Sato had remotely searched 4-square degrees around the position I provided, only without cometary object brighter than 17 mag detected. It had to be nothing I think. In addition SWAN images continued lent no support to the "suspect", so I completely gave up. The day before yesterday I also noticed Shigeki Murakami's latest diary, as he had conducted eight predawn hunting sessions in August. The position should be fully covered already, which sentenced the "suspect" to death to a further extent. Anyway I need to seriously introspect the reason why I made these false alarms, hitherto three in sum already.

A cold front swept South China several days ago and therefore brought two days of superb weather conditions, enabling me to comet hunt twice in great pleasure. On Sep 16 predawn I started sweeping from M1 at 3:57 a.m. Sweeping regions around Venus could not satisfy me because of great contamination from its light. Beehive Cluster M44 entered into the FOV at 4:54 a.m. I saw Regulus across the FOV at 5:16 a.m. and put the session to an end at 5:33 a.m. The Sep 17 predawn session was commenced at 4 a.m. at Alnath (β Tau) directly, however, I failed to notice of any authentic nebulous object during my sweeps. I know there were myriads of galaxies towards Leo, however, unluckily some of the bright members were still in low altitudes, the condition of which was not optimal. Towards 5 p.m. I noticed some subtle hint of zodiacal light elongating towards Gemini, luxury enjoyment! Had there been no the viaduct equipped with powerful roadlights kilometers away to the south and the avenue rebuilt a couple years ago to the west, the conditions would have been literally different. Alas these have gone forever. I think I have to upgrade my seeker to a larger aperture to baffle the light pollution, or to give up the visual hunts and start photographically. I tend to choose the former option. During the search, I was in meditation. Faced up with the starry sky, tranquil as a pond of pacific lake my heart is. How stupid if we eagerly pursue fame, vanity, or even warfare! I concluded the session at 5:27 a.m. when I completed the last downward sweep.

I could not conduct another session this predawn, for it was mainly cloudy. Aside, the transparency has declined significantly. I went back sleep again.

Thu, Aug 30

I conducted three predawn sessions after my last update of my diary. The weather reached climax on Aug 27 predawn, declined somewhat on Aug 28, and finally worsened dramatically yesterday. The session on Aug 27 was the most satisfactory one as of yet at home in this year; I managed to witness the Milky Way meandering from Cygnus to Auriga. Moreover, the condition in low altitudes was almost perfect for my site. The session started from Jupiter at 3:30 a.m., and numerous Deep Sky Objects were picked up and identified, amongst which M1 was the only nebula I could discern. It appeared large and bright in the FOV, very enjoyable! M35 along with two companying open clusters NGC 2158 and IC 2158 looked compact. M44 above the mountain in the east gleamed gracefully as well in the FOV. I also spent a span time from 4:43 a.m. to 5:06 a.m. observing comet 185P, the region of which had been swept in the session while it was still situated low and thus it eluded me. Great efforts have been made prior to successfully seeing the extremely diffuse comet of 10.7^m in my estimate. Were it new, given the central condensation, I felt that I cannot pick it up in my search. Alas light pollution is becoming more and more serious and I have no idea to change the situation. I continued my sweep after the observation until I felt twilight too bright at 5:23 a.m.

The second session witnessed some clouds at the beginning and a worse transparency. I finally began sweeping at 3:52 a.m. starting from 58 Per to avoid clouds. The only two Deep Sky Objects I picked up were NGC 2281 and NGC 2419, the former an open cluster in Auriga adjacent to Lynx, the latter a small globular cluster appearing tiny and dim in the FOV. Aside, I detected a comet-like suspect in Lynx at around 5:07 a.m. At first I thought that it might be some binary stars or grouping asterism, however, it remained fuzzy at 48x. I did not try to identify which specific region I was observing against star chart on spot for fear that it may well quickly fade out due to brightening twilight before I took a mental note. Instead, I sketched what I saw in a notebook and decided to identify it later following the conclusion of the session. Having finished the work, I went on to sweep and eventually ended at the region around 21 Lyn and 22 Lyn at 5:24 a.m. when twilight was too bright to continue. Before identifying the suspect, I had been thinking of it some faint asterism or clustering stars, however, when I matched the surrounding star patterns to the digital star chart, nothing was found at the position, no star thus bright, no galaxies, etc. I also downloaded the DSS image, and again, nothing matched what I saw. New comet?? Not quite possible provided that I am still a newbie as a comet hunter. But for security, I have sought help from a couple of reliable persons. Hitherto there has yet no positive news. Moreover, I checked the latest SWAN images, finding it not very optimistic. For curiosity, I also attempted to trace the last visually discovered comet P/2010 V1 in SWAN images of 2010 Nov, negative as well. It proves that we hunters should not overestimate the capacity of SWAN attributed to it monitoring different wavelengths from human eyes. Bright dusty comets will only appear dim or even be missed in SWAN camera.

I tried to further identify the suspect yesterday predawn, however, the weather condition turned very nasty. Smog and haze prevailed heavily. I hesitated to begin my sweep as I doubted whether the session would be meaningful. Sirius could even elude me when rising above the mountain. How poor! Nonetheless I decided to begin my search from Hassaleh (ι Aur) at 4:15 a.m. As I found what I saw extremely dissatisfactory, only completing two downward sweeps did I give up the session at 4:40 a.m.

I also got up this predawn, only saw the similarly nasty weather, and directly did not make any attempt whatsoever. The moon is invading the predawn sky, and the weather forecast is pessimistic, so it really does not look good anyway.

Sat, Aug 25

It has been over a month since my last comet hunt session. Nor was it always raining, but it was hazy and foggy when the sky turned clear, and consequently, Venus appeared only fragile. Conducting comet hunt under such circumstances would have been only meaningless.

Fortunately three consecutive days in this week of fine weather dawned upon me so I could comet hunt thrice. I did not expect a clear predawn sky the day before yesterday as it had been pouring from morning to evening. Yet it did give me a surprise when I found clouds dispersing and stars began to twinkle past around 3 a.m. I began the session from the region degrees away to the south of Hassaleh (ι Αug) at about 4:15 a.m. after setting up well equipment to photograph comet 185P/Petriew, by which all the clouds had vanished completely. I did not pick up anything comet-like except for many of the clusters, amongst which the most impressive one is M37, picked up during the first downward sweep. Sweeping regions in low altitudes was unsatisfactory due to heavy fogs. The humidity was exceptionally high, and soon my seeker has been covered with droplets and paper star charts turned saturated. The session was ended at 5:21 a.m.

I observed comet C/2011 F1 for the third time in that evening. It was no easy task in that the western sky was seriously contaminated with city lights from downtown. Nonetheless I baffled the condition and the comet was caught in sight as a faint blob of light. It was of around 11^m, 3'.0 in diameter.

Yesterday predawn witnessed a far better condition than the day before yesterday. It was breezy, cool and dry. How enjoyable! I swept from Hassaleh directly at 3:42 a.m. Once again I did not pick up anything truly cometary or nebulous, but all varieties of clusters, including NGC 1893, M37, M36, NGC 1931, M38, and NGC 1907. At 4 a.m. I stopped to set up equipment for observation of 185P, which cost me around 5-min's time. However, the battery ran out of power only half an hour later unluckily. Yet a coin has two sides; I did not have to distract myself and finally could back focusing on sweeping skies. Before I concluded the session, I attempted to train my seeker to 185P at 4:59 a.m. At first I glimpsed a faint blob at 30x against rapidly brightening background. However, I did not see anything convincible neither at 48x or at 119x. For one thing, it proved that the comet was very diffuse, as reported by other observers. For another, a bright background easily washes out faint nebulous objects. I went back sweeping at 5:10 a.m. from the region where I paused. The last downward sweep reached the end at 5:21 a.m.

The weather of this predawn deteriorated, as clouds prevailed in the sky. I got up at 3:20 a.m., only finding myself overcast. But when I got up at 4 a.m., clouds were dispersing. At the end I managed to comet hunt starting from 4:20 a.m. I decided to search from the region several degrees to the north of Hassaleh. Sweeping regions packed with stars was exhilarating and enjoyful. Clusters including M38, NGC 1907, NGC 1931, and M36, were picked up during sweeps. Unfortunately some clouds cumulated in some of my search region, so I was forced to change and sweep from near Menkalinan (β Aug). At around 5:10 a.m. a comet-like object situated in eastern Auriga adjacent to Lynx and Gemini against swiftly brightening background attracted my specific attention. Twilight brought much difficulty in my checking the object. I switched to higher powers, and felt that it may well be an asterism. Anon it lost in sight. Anyway it would have been worthwhile to identify it during next hunting session, however, I could not remember its exact position, albeit I had intended to plot the position with respect to the stars after the end of the session. How stupid! I went on to sweep and put it to an end at 5:26 a.m.

Sun, Jul 29

It was lucky that I could finally manage to conduct comet hunt this predawn under relatively good circumstances. The sky proceeded to turn clear following a shower yesterday late afternoon. I also attempted to visually observe comet 96P/Machholz at around 20:20 yesterday with the 8" seeker, yet was baffled by strong road lights and moonlight -- nothing discernable fainter than ~8^m in the FOV.

My alarm clock went off at 3:20 a.m., I got up immediately and went to the roofdeck. The transparency was excellent! The autumn Milky Way, striding and stretching across the northern sky, was well visible. The hunting session was commenced at 3:32a.m. from Botein (δ Ari) in Aries. Anon Hyades entered the FOV, packed with glimmering diamond-like stars! Venus was rising slowly over the jungle atop the mountain in the east and began to dazzle intensely at 3:40 a.m. At 3:56 a.m. Jupiter following open cluster NGC 1647 interloped into the FOV, strongly stimulating my dark-adapted eye. Three minutes later I was sweeping past M45. Alas because of light pollution, nebulosity around the cluster appeared to elude me. As I swept downward the FOV seemed evidently brighter, and sure enough the contaminator Venus came into the FOV at 4:07 a.m. I did not dare to see Venus in the FOV in that it is so bright that my adaptation to darkness might well be completely ruined. I later reached the position where I saw the suspect on 19 Jul, nothing comet-like observed. Nor could I see that asterism either. The other two dimmer stars were impossible to see in such a low power and light-polluted condition, and therefore I wondered whether it did happen to be a real object or not. But once it really were, it must have been lost. I ended the hunt at 5:07 a.m. when twilight had been very bright. Other Deep Sky Objects I identified were basically all open clusters, including NGC 1746, NGC 1907, M36, and M37. The latter two appeared pedestrian under strong influence from twilight. I wondered if I had observed planetary nebula NGC 1514, as I noticed that the star surrounding by the nebula appeared somewhat fuzzy. Besides, I could not understand I missed the Crab Nebula M1. Perhaps attributed to dense fog and some thin clouds in low altitudes? I also swept across the region where comet 185P/Petriew is situated, not seen.

In conclusion, sweeping regions more than 20° in altitude above was enjoyable, whilst the otherwise was seriously worsened by dense fog and somewhat strong haze. The air was highly moist, whereby my paper star charts almost turned saturated, and the chair I sat on was fully wet as well!

After the session I enjoyed observing Jupiter and Venus at 119x. But seeing was merely mediocre. Two of the Galilean Satellites Io and Europa is only several arcsec apart. I should be thankful to the heaven, as when all has been finished, clouds started amassing and visibility severely worsened.

Mon, Jul 23

I conducted two sessions of comet hunt last week following my last update of the online log, one on Jul 19, and the other on 21^st.

Neither of these sessions sufficed me as the transparency was too disgusting to meet my satisfaction. I failed to fall asleep before the session made on Jul 19, and the clouds happened to disperse so I started the session at around 4:30 a.m from Pleiades, M45. At around 4:40 a.m. I saw a comet-like object at 31x at R.A.=4h07.8m, Decl.=+23°08' (J2000.0), m1~9.5, DC=4. I switched eyepieces yielding higher power for me, yet it still appeared nebulous. The possibility of it being optical reflection from other light sources was also eliminated. Alas I spent too much time trying to identify the region against star chart for I had underestimated the distance covered from M45 and, additionally, the direction was well-off too. How stupid I was! Anon the twilight became very bright and it had already been washed out in the background when I went to re-locate it. No obvious motion has been detected.

The only uncertainty I failed to rule out was whether it turned out to be an asterism consisting of a triplet of faint stars with R mags around 11.5, 12.9 and 13.1 separately. The total R mag of these stars is calculated to around 11.1, still fainter than what I expected. As the conditions were only nasty, LM in the FOV was only around 12.

I was clouded out the following predawn, and managed to seize a reluctant chance on 21 predawn, under even much poorer circumstances; Venus appeared even fragile through the heavy haze along with some fogs and clouds. I started the session at 4:13 a.m. from M45, and concluded at 5:10 a.m. I could not pick up anything comet-like or any DSOs. Nor could I discern anything in that position where the suspect was sighted. Yet the session was believed to be meaningless and helpless in that the weather was thus poor that only stars situated relatively high in altitude brighter than 10^m could be visible in the FOV.

Meanwhile, I have informed two of my friends, Shigeki and Don, about what I saw. So far it did not look promising whatsoever. Perhaps it happened to be that asterism.

This predawn was once again tightly overcast without any gaps between clouds, however, at daybreak the clouds dispersed quickly and revealed the dazzling Venus and Jupiter high in the eastern sky. The transparency turned superb attributable to an approaching typhoon. Alas it was already too late to sweep the skies. If only the clouds could have dispersed earlier!

Mon, Jul 16

We always complain that when the night is free from interference of moonlight, it is relentlessly overcast, and it turns excessively superb while the moon is shining brilliantly. Despite somewhat subjective perhaps, it correctly reflects my thought as well. Early this July has witnessed consecutive excellent nights with great transparency, however, as the moon cleared away and thereby sessions of predawn hunts could have been conducted, the weather worsened dramatically. Nor is that no star emerged at night, but the time they appeared was such limited that any observation would be in vain. Nevertheless, I managed to observe several targets early this month whilst the moon seriously affected the predawn sky, including two comets -- C/2011 F1 (LINEAR) and C/2011 L4 (Pan-STARRS), and Nova Sagittarius 2012 No. 4.

Following an unsuccessful attempt of comet hunt yesterday predawn due to overcast, I tried my luck again this predawn, and managed to sweep the skies for a period of very short time when twilight had already begun. Clouds appeared to shrink, and the triplet consisting of the waning crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter started dazzling in the eastern sky. Competing against time, I quickly swept from Venus at 4:52 a.m., covered the whole northeastern region, and finally concluded the session at the region adjacent to Capella at 5:10 a.m. when twilight became too bright. No cometary suspect has been found.

Then I freely enjoyed the spectacle of the triplet, completely enchanted. It is the purest magic that comes from the great Lord, as a wonderful gift to all who admire the beauty of the heaven.

Wed, Jun 13

I successfully observed the Transit of Venus on Jun 06 at Shandong University Observatory, Weihai, D39. My final decision about where to go to observe was made only merely over one day prior to the event after a scrutiny of varieties of weather forecasts nationwide which might provide me with a promising observation of the event, as it would become the last chance that I could catch doubtlessly. Despite that a weak high pressure ridge along the South China coast had been foreseen, yet the system did not seem robust and steady whatsoever, and therefore I decided to leave home and fly to Weihai, Shandong with fingers crossed.

I arrived at the airport at Weihai past noon on Jun 05, took an express bus to the downtown area, and finally got to a rooftop adjacent to a dome of the observatory atop a small hill near the seashore, where my friend, Tao Chen, one of the discoverers of comet C/2008 C1 (Chen-Gao), had been testing the setups for a live broadcast of the transit with his friends from the Purple Mountain Observatory. Disturbingly, the weather quickly deteriorated towards dusk; when I was at the airport, the sky was crystal clear in azure, however, high clouds now expanded from the west and anon the visibility worsened with an annoying layer of haze. We had to keep checking realtime weather satellite images, only to find the conditions might turn worse and worse. After supper, we analyzed the weather charts in a lengthy manner so as to find out if there would be elsewhere within a distance of 1000 km with more optimistic weather conditions on the next day morning when the transit occurs. But the result turned out to be, that by no means could we escape, as we were situated almost at the easternmost tip of the peninsular. The only thing we could do was to stay where we were, and await the luck, if there would be any. Through the high clouds, we witnessed the seriously blurred moon in the evening.

The night witnessed my sleep shorter than two hours, and everybody got up towards five o'clock. The weather was acceptable, although covered with high clouds, at least some parts revealed hints of the blue sky. On the way to the observatory, we saw the red sun highly blurred and distorted by the clouds, rising up from the mountains in distance. On arriving at the terminal, I set up my equipment, an Orion 105mm f/13 Maksutov filtered by Baader Solar Filter (neutral density 5.0) + Canon 60D mounted by Astrotrac TT320X-AG, on the rooftop. Towards the first contact, the clouds around the sun turned thinner somewhat, and the outline of the solar disk was revealed. Couples of minutes after the first contact I managed to spot a notch at the rim of the solar disk -- a part of the silhouette of Venus had entered!

It proceeded to the second contact towards around 6:28 a.m. I did not seize the opportunity to visually witness the potential notorious black-drop effect following the second contact but attempted to photograph it. However, no clear evidence has been caught in the sequence. Later hours have seen ever-changing thickness of the clouds around the sun. Sometimes the sun was exaggeratingly blurred due to the clouds, and at the other time it turned relatively clear. Nevertheless, the shadows cast onto the ground have never become obvious. The high clouds existed all along the transit. I attempted to visually see the silhouette of Venus by naked eye with special sunglasses for eclipses, and it proved that I succeeded! It was an evident sighting.

The maximum transit was missed because of thick clouds, yet in fact it is difficult to discern without any aid. The third and fourth contacts were both successfully recorded by the camera, however, admittedly the weather turned poorer during those moments. Once again, no clear sign of the black-drop effect has been sighted. The whole event concludes.

Frankly speaking, the Transits of Venus hardly impress me if compared to total solar eclipses, yet, it is so rare that only six have been observed after the invention of telescopes. In the very case, the mighty God will be parsimonious.

As for comet hunts, it has been almost two months since my last sweeps, and I really cannot know when the next will come. As a hunter, patience is my good virtue.

Sun, Apr 22

I went to Mt. Mulan with my friends last afternoon for observations at night. However, the weather did not appear promising in downtown as the sky was teemed with strong haze following drizzles on the previous day. Even when arriving on the top of the mountain, we saw no obvious difference. We agreed on the decision that once the conditions did not recover, we would go back without hesitation. Fortunately, as the winds blew stronger and stronger after the nightfall, much of the haze dispersed and declined its elevation, and therefore except for the sky regions low towards the horizon, it did turn much clearer. Zodiacal light has been successfully noticed in the western evening sky, drowning Hesperus, who powerfully glistens in Taurus.

At the very beginning I planned to photograph comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) with a 200mm f/2.8 lens, mounted by my Astrotrac. Yet the gale, on the other hand, kept casting bitter influences upon photographing the comet, causing noticeable vibration of the setup. So I had to give up the attempt, went to visually enjoy many galaxies via the 21.0-cm Takahashi Mewlon instead, and let my friend Zhu Mao exploit the mount to image some constellations through his 24mm lens.

Three of comets -- C/2009 P1 (Garradd), C/2011 F1 (LINEAR), and C/2011 UF₃₀₅ (LINEAR) have been successfully observed. I managed to observe C/2009 P1 through both the Cassegrain and a set of 10x50 binoculars, evidently fainter than during last observation. The dust tail and the plasma tail could only be visible through the Cassegrain, no any hint whatsoever via the binoculars. It might well be that the haze had smeared my attempt. The other two comets are much dimmer and rather challenged my capability and patience. C/2011 F1 happened to be placed at the region without many faint stars in vicinity, so identification would not be outrageously difficult. Conditions were not the same for C/2011 UF₃₀₅, overwhelmed with countless dim stars near the Milky Way in Cepheus. But its motion was well spotted within a spell of around an hour.

In my agenda more comets, e.g. C/2011 L4 (Pan-STARRS), were to be observed for the first time for me. Very tempting, right? Yet I noticed that a 15-cm f/5 reflector was available for me, for its owner went back to his car for sleep. "Why not conduct a session of comet hunt?" I spoke to myself. So I did.

The hunting session started at 04:07 a.m., from the region adjacent to ζ Cyg, at 30x. Distinguishing from any of previous sessions, I swept the skies along declination lines as the reflector was equatorially mounted. During the sweeps, I found that what I saw failed to match my satisfaction to a great extent, as the transparency rapidly worsened as the altitude lowered. I understood that the swept region contains some faint galaxies, only visible had there been no haze. Merely 50-min later, I had to conclude the hunting session when sweeping some 5° to the north of Scheat, a.k.a. β Peg, as the twilight had been so bright. It was frustrating that none of the galaxies had been caught in the session. For several times something looked fuzzy at the first glimpse in the FOV was caught, yet finally all proved to be dim asterisms. Furthermore, I felt that the hunting session was such short that only a very limiting region had been fully covered. If only I had started the session much earlier!

Prior to disassembling the Cassegrain, Zhu and I observed Mercury through leaves and branches of a bush; it was definitely a wrong place to observe it. Only when gusts blew fiercely, could we see Mercury easily as the bush was extravagantly bent aside. Nonetheless, the phase was seen, semicircle, accompanied by severe turbulence. Meanwhile, I started to feel very cold and sicky due to fatigue and strong gusts of winds.

Sat, Apr 07

It has been long since my last session of comet hunt. The period from February to March has witnessed the worst weather with the least number of clear days hitherto in my memory, mainly attributed to La Niña. It is definitely a disaster for us visual comet hunters in that negative factors from the weather lends no support whatsoever, greatly reducing the time that is spent in hunting for comets. As a result, under such circumstances a successful discovery of a previously unknown comet seems implausible for me. I am getting frustrated and irritated? Certainly! Yet I will keep hunting as much as I can. As my friend Shigeki Murakami said, only being patient, I will have great enjoyment and a pure mind with the clear sky, shining stars more brilliantly in my mind’s eyes.

After I came back school in Wuhan, I managed to go to Mt. Mulan with my friends again on Mar 24 evening. Unfortunately the 13.0cm-reflector I employed for comet hunt in last December had been sold by my friend and therefore there was no equipment in appropriate aperture for comet hunt on Mar 25 predawn. I observed comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) during the activity, appearing fairly bright through small binoculars with two diverging tails, 0°.5 in length in P.A. 40° for the dust tail, and 0°.4 in P.A. 126° for the plasma tail. It was close to the commencement of the astronomical twilight that I exploited a set of 10x50 binoculars to briefly sweep the southeastern sky starting from the core of the Milky Way, in the vicinity of which is teemed with Messier objects along with countless deep-sky-objects in awe. Nonetheless I soon felt both my arms very tired for the binoculars were unmounted, I enjoyed and enchanted by what I observed and passed the FOV. These are all the treasure that the Lord awards me. Yet unluckily the sky turned overcast anon some half an hour later, and my observation had to pause.

I really cannot know when I am able to conduct comet hunt again. But anyway, I am certain that starry sky will dawn upon me in due time in the near future. I will patiently keep awaiting the time to come, regardless of how much difficulty is on my way to confront with me, sharing the purest enjoyment in every fabulous night with the great Lord.

Wed, Feb 01

The weather had been excessively nasty in January. Nor did the rainy days always prevail, but more annoyingly, it was always tightly overcast without any sunshine at day, or any stars at night. I only witnessed one single starry night prior to the spring festival on Jan 16 at my hometown situated miles north to Hợp Phố, but it did not last for long, and hence I lost the precious opportunity to observe comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) as well. Perhaps this was my fate.

But miraculously, it turned clear yesterday. The azure sky looked so tempting! In the evening after supper, I tried to observe the remnant of C/2011 W3 from the suburb through the 8" seeker, yet failed in spotting any hint, despite that stars faint to around 12^m were visible in the FOV. At around 22:15, the observation had to be concluded due to the invasion of thick clouds moving from the west. Simultaneously I attempted to take photographs of the field through a 50mm lens, cherishing the hope of capturing some subtlety of the comet. However, now I waiver the thought that these images would record the comet after checking the photographs, in that the sky was exceedingly light polluted by the roadlights in the south. Nevertheless, they are still under process. May miracle descend upon me.

I got up at 4:15 a.m. this predawn for comet hunting. At first the sky was almost free from clouds, except the western part. The session was started from γ Her at 4:29 a.m. However, the clouds rapidly extended and anon the whole sky was overcast; I could only sweep for around 25 min. Interestingly, during the sweep I came across a satellite with drastic periodic variation in its brightness moving slowly westwards at 4:31 a.m. Another satellite of around 9^m was glimpsed at 4:44 a.m. with fast motion towards north across the FOV. The clouds were not equally thick -- there were many blocks between clouds that sometimes bright stars would emerge. Therefore, I kept waiting for the dispersion of clouds, yet unfortunately, the chance never came. I moved the seeker back at 6:15 a.m.

By the way, I read a story about an unconfirmed comet in 2004 claimed by my friend Shigeki Murakami reminiscent of my encounter on Jan 01 predawn. I started to wonder if what I saw was also a real comet which came close to the Earth. If it happens to be true, perhaps years later it will be confirmed.

Mon, Jan 02

I went back home prior to New Year's Day so I could conduct comet hunts through the 8" seeker again.

I managed to sweep the skies on yesterday predawn and this predawn consecutively. Neither of the sweeps was satisfactory as the sky was hazy with interference from annoying clouds. Yesterday I started the session at around 4:29 a.m. from Spica. Four minutes later, I stumbled upon a fuzzy object moving into the FOV along with the surrounding stars, approximately at J2000.0 13h33.7m, -12°41'. Despite being faint, it appeared well visible by the averted vision. Initially I thought that I was looking at some bright galaxy or a dim asterism, however, after referring to the star chart as well as DSS real-sky images, I realized that nothing corresponded to what I was observing. The possibility of the object being internal reflection of the lenses has been ruled out in that the object shared the same motion with the stars in vicinity when I gently moved the scope. Yet the likelihood of the object being reflection from the eyeball has not been excluded; on switching to another eyepiece yielding 48x, I was anon overcast. It was at 5:27 a.m. that a relatively large gap between clouds rolled in the region which enabled me to identify the object. Unfortunately, with interference of thin clouds I could not firmly see anything positive, only vaguely "feeling" that there was something near the threshold of my visibility at around 13h33.8m, -12°43'; adjacent stars appeared much fainter as well. Before I could take more measures except for merely a few glimpse, thick clouds devoured the area again. Conditions began to recover at around 6:17 a.m., and I attempted to observe the region, trying to locate the object. Nonetheless, I failed in spotting it any longer for the background was strongly overwhelmed with bright twilight. I had to end the search at 6:24 a.m.

Unexpectedly I could make another session this predawn -- it was overcast tightly on New Year's Day till night without any hint of recovery. But admittedly the condition was even inferior to yesterday although there were fewer clouds; haze prevailed in the sky. I got up at around 4:25 a.m. and quickly started the sweep from Spica again at 4:30 a.m. It did not take me long to arrive at the position where the suspect was detected yesterday. Half an hour has been spent in searching for the suspect, only with nothing positive. It must be a false alarm.

Later I went on to sweep the southeastern sky, and soon went regretful, since the region was severely polluted by city lights. Clouds moving northwards emerged and covered the region I was sweeping, therefore, I changed to sweep from Alphekka, viz. α CrB at 5:42 a.m. or thereabouts. I stopped the sweeps at 6:09 a.m., without any single DSO detected. I exerted myself to the search of the suspect, but all was proven vain -- I could detect nothing. I concluded the whole session at 6:15 a.m., when thick clouds went cumulate.

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