At 5.20 am, I saw clear moon light inside my bedroom, so I looked out to see if I could see any stars. Sure enough there were stars. So I got ready and went out in search of ISON (the comet that is running itself into the sun). It is supposed to be in Virgo. I could see lots of stars in the northwest including Corvus, Arctrus, Orion except for the Virgo, which covered in a dense cloud. And huge chunks of clouds were heading towards Virgo. So I spent time photographing moon in various cloud formations waiting for clouds to clear from Virgo. By then dawn was setting in, it became brighter in the east.
I heard the first White-throated Sparrows waking up in the shrubbery behind me softly cheeping and Canada Geese waking up in Six Miles Creek reservoir with honks around 6.10 am. Just then the breeze cleared the Virgo. But by then Spica had become a faint star. Even with binoculars I could not locate Ison. It must have become invisible. But it was an amazing warm morning! I did not even have to wear gloves! Hopefully in next few days, I will get one clear morning when I could observe the Ison and hear an owl too. Has anyone seen Ison yet? Cheers Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 42.429007,-76.47111 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
