Comet Giacobini-Zinner in Perseus at 8:56 UT on 25 August 1985. This comet's rapid apparent motion brought it to the tip of the red arrow by 10:04 UT. A 20cm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope was used at 166x.
All sketches on this page have south up and west to the left. In an effort to not lose too much of the intangible visual beauty one experiences at a telescope's eyepiece, colors have been somewhat exagerrated or added.
Comet Giacobini-Zinner in Perseus at 8:56 UT on 25 August 1985. This comet's rapid apparent motion brought it to the tip of the red arrow by 10:04 UT. A 20cm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope was used at 166x.
Comet Halley in Orion at 7:08-7:37 UT on 13 October 1985. A 20cm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope was used at 66x. This was my first observation of Halley's famous comet.
Comet Hartley-Good in Serpens Cauda at 1:58-2:15 UT on 4 November 1985. A 20cm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope with telecompressor (reduces magnification and increases the field of view) was used for this observation.
Comet Halley in Crater at 4:55-5:01 UT on 2 May 1986. A 20cm Schmidt Cassegrain telescope with telecompressor was used. This was my best view of Halley's famous comet.
Comet Bradfield with 1.25 degree tail on 16 November 1987 UT. This was one of many comets discovered by William Bradfield of Australia. A pair of 20x80 binoculars was used for this observation. Over the years I've found large and small binoculars to provide some outstanding views of comets.
Comet Aarseth-Brewington in Hercules at 1:53 UT on 20 November 1989. A 25cm Newtonian was used at 35x for this observation, but there's more to the story. I was actively hunting for new comets when I stumbled across this particular "fuzzball." A phone call to an astronomical information source informed me of a "possible new comet" that was as yet "unconfirmed." The coordinates provided by the phone recording closely matched those of my new find. This observation is as close as I've come to making an actual comet discovery.
Solar Sketches-----------------------------------Lunar Sketches
Planetary Sketches-------------------------------Planetary Sketches - page 2
Jupiter-SL9 Sketches----------------------------Comet Sketches
Comet Hyakutake Sketches----------------------Comet Hale-Bopp Sketches
Deep Sky Sketches------------------------------Deep Sky Sketches - page 2
Rough Sketches----------------------------------Paintings
Why make sketches?-----------------------------The Art of Astronomical Sketching
Character Sketch---------------------------------Links to Other Websites
Home-made Binocular Mount-----------------Home