2000-08-04 7:00pm AEST
Conditions: clear sky, no wind
Equipment:
- Pentax 16×50 PCF III binoculars
- Vanguard video camera tripod
- I decided to have a look for this comet since the moon is only going to get brighter from now on.
I used Starry Night Backyard with my FOV Indicators plugin to work out what I should expect to see with my binoculars at 3.1° FOV.
I must say that my recollection of comets over the last fifteen years or so is that they are usually a lot dimmer than the optimistic forecasts!
I can now say that I have seen LINEAR C/1999 S4. It was about 16′ WSW from HIP60224 at the time of viewing which correlated to what I could see in my binoculars. I could only see it using averted vision as somewhat dimmer than magnitude 8.18, the magnitude of HIP60224. It looked like a very faint star.
There were no other stars visible nearby in the FOV leading me to conclude that my binoculars have a limiting magnitude somewhat less than Starry Night Backyard which is magnitude 9.
