I arrived just before sunset. Quickly set up the Mamiya tripod and Canon camera. Focused on the Moon.
A woman and daughter walked by as I was just starting to photograph. I told them they were a little early. They headed off to dinner at the Grenadier.
David A, from Kennedy St, showed up. Cool! He had his Celestron 15x70 bins (still uncollimated) and a camera. I think his son was with him too. And I think he also had some 7x binoculars.
Grace and Tony arrived shortly after. Tony had his Celestron's, sturdy custom brace, and tripod. Grace and I looked at Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Rigel, and the belt stars as the sky darkened. It was looking to be a lovely evening. But bitterly cold.
Tony was first to spot C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS in the 15x70 binoculars. David and I found the comet about 5 to 10 minutes later in our 7x50s. A milestone. This showed that with clear skies one could see the comet (a bit brighter than originally predicted now) with small glasses. I finally started seeing it in photographs.
Photo by Blake. 8:20 PM. Canon 40D, IS 18-55mm lens at 55, 6 seconds, f/6.3, ISO 1000, daylight w/b, manual focus, tripod, timer release. RAW format. Cropped in Ps CS2, levels, saturation.
And then we could see it naked eye! Another milestone!
As the sky darkened, the 15x binoculars offered a very attractive view with an extremely bright, tight core, obvious coma, and angular fan shape to the tail. Fantastic.
Grace was very happy to have seen it in her small binoculars and then unmagnified.
Various citizens wandered through. We offered views. Referred them to the RASC Toronto Centre web site.
It was a good spot, the one I selected, in the park, in the Hillside Gardens area, overlooking the maple leaf. I think Tony liked it. The skies were pretty well perfect.
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Dave sent me a note. "It was most enjoyable and surprising to see you and Tony there." I concurred. He also confirmed it was his son with him. And his small binoculars were 7x50.
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Wikipedia link: C/2011 L4.
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