Comet Pan-Starrs final view....

Last night to see the comet before the clouds roll in for the weekend.  I decided to move to another location to mix up the scenery a bit.  My choice was just down the road from where I live which made it easy to get to, and the temps were holding around 70 degrees.  Not a bad night to see the comet.  Here is the view leading to the viewing of the comet.

 

It wasn't until afterwards did I realize that centered in the frame was one of the Storm sirens used during severe weather.  This to me, was the combination of both of my hobbies rolled into one.  I had a good time seeing this unworldly body pass through our solar system.  I look forward to next fall when Comet ISON makes an even closer pass to Earth.

Comet Pan-Starrs second capture.

Ok, tonight is suppose to be the big night and surprisingly the weather gave way to clearer skies than the night before.  I decided to stick closer to home this time and run 7 miles east too shoot this time against the cities lights.  Here is what Starry Night had to give:

Ok, so according to the image, the moon will be directly above the comet still riding higher in the sky than it truly is.  Now onto the pics of my location leading up to the Comets viewing.

 

Now really, does that seem to be in the same place as what the Starry Night is displaying?? I think not.  But I have my moon and spent the next 20 minutes looking for the Comet directly below the moon.  So, here's the moon:

 And sure enough, I find the Comet about 25 degrees above the horizon.

In case you cant see it... hows this...

At this point I'm increasing my exposure time so the comets starting to become better looking as in thr pics below.

Much to my relief, the comet put on a pretty good showing until it faded into the distant clouds.  I have one more clear night on Thursday to get it in before the rain moves in later in the week.  Hope to see it once more.

Pan-Starrs first capture..

Here it is...the second week of spring and not a lick of severe weather anywhere in sight of Oklahoma.  Its hard to imagine when I wasn't suffering such a bad drought of SDS as I am right now.  But wait, wasn't there something special planned months ago that I had my sights set on? That wasn't about surrounding weather?

March welcomed in a new kid to the game and it wasn't anywhere on this world, but above.  Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) is a non-periodic comet discovered back in June 2011 that would soon become visible to the naked eye when it was near perihelion the second week of March.  This comet would mark the first of two visible comets in the northern hemisphere and I have to say, I couldn't wait to see it.  You see, I'm a big fan of astronomy, ever since I was a kid.  I took in my first full solar eclipse back in 1979 at the ripe old age of 11 from the playground of my elementary school and found it fascinating. Over the years, I've grown to follow much of what the cosmos has to offer and recently in the last decade started to record the sights.  But enough of that, lets get onto the pics.

In my first outing out to see the comet, was on Thursday March 7th, when it was suppose to come into view on the western horizon.  I followed the star maps of the program I use, (Starry Nights 6th edition) and it looked to be a great view.  However I was disappointed to see that the comet was much lower in the sky, thus leaving me unable to see it.  For the next several days, the skies were overcast which left me to only sit and wait for the next big break.

MARCH 12th 2013.

The skies finally gave way to a chance once more to see the comet.  The crescent moon played a part to guiding me to the comet which later I found out to be much lower in the sky than originally thought.  Heres what starry night shown:

      
In fact, this image above is not at all what I saw in the same time frame.  This is what I truly saw.

I never could find the moon, let alone the comet for at least another 40 minutes.  It took a while for the moon to become visible, and when it did, it lead me directly to the comet which was surprising smaller than i expected.

With the comet captured by my long exposures and set of binoculars, it was just a matter of time to begin getting better shots of the comet seen below.

And this one....

and finally this one with enhanced contrast ...

All in all, I was able to capture a fair amount of shots, but only came out with a handful due to the cold air which was about 29 degrees.  The next couple of nights would be warmer, so we'll see what comes next.