November 96 Observations

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11/27/96 6:05 PM EDT
Observed Hale-Bopp with Naked Eye at 6:05 PM EDT with virtually no dark adaptation and while the skies were not yet fully dark either. Nucleus area appeared stellar with a 1/2 degree gasseous envelope like tail pointing eastward with direct vision. With averted vision the nucleus was more stellar, with the tail more obvious in both width and length. I would say that the stellar nucleus area is most likely brighter than M1=5.5 and overall coma around M1=4.4. Not corrected for proximity to the horizon. Good transparent atmospheric conditions.

11/17/96 00:30 AM EDT to 03:00 AM EDT Leonids
Watched the Leonids with Charles Redmond.
The sky started out skunky and cleared out by 1:15 AM giving us a LM of + 6.0
We observed 38 Leonids and 23 other meteors. One Leonid was several times the brightness of Venus (m1 near -6.0) that left a greenish train that lasted close to a minute. The train became distorted by the upper atmospheric winds. Another Leonid not directly visually observed lit up the surrounding landscape for a brief instant.
A good time was had by all!
11/15/96 6:20 PM EDT
Imaged Hale Bopp
11/14/96 6:20 PM EDT
Imaged Hale Bopp. This is the night Chuck from Houston found his anomolous object before doing his homework. Here is my raw image of HB on 11/12 and 11/14 glued together with Chuck's mystery object.
11/12/96 6:20 PM EDT
Imaged Hale Bopp
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