Anthony, Very busy here at Astronomy Ireland HQ at present but just quick note to say I saw Comet NEAT last night and it's an impressive little comet from floodlit Butterly Business Park in a Celestron 8-inch SCT! Mag 7.0 approx and 3 arcmin wide. Nicely condensed unlike a couple of weeks ago when I last saw it. There's a finder chart in the February issue of A&S showing where to find it in the West after sunset just below the Square of Pegasus. Those in rural locations will no doubt be getting fine views in binoculars. Let's hope it stays clear this Friday and/or Saturday so we can have a members' telescope night (don't call before 4pm remember, and not after 5:30pm!). Haven't been out in ages! Here's an extract from my personal log (it's my raw format, not meant for publication but I encourage everyone who looks at the sky to keep a file on their PC where they can just jot down notes the next day after those all too rare clear nights!): ----- 2003 Jan 22d 20:40UT-20:50UT saw comet neat in west just below sq. of Pegasus from window of u75 bbp. very XP but quite a lot of light pollution at comets 18deg alt. second time I�ve seen it and it is much brighter and condensed than first time I saw it. it's a nice comet from bbp in c8 so would be a fine sight in non light polluted sky. used c8 with NexStar plossl 40mm giving 50x and made it about half way between Sao 128272(mag7.3) and 128269(mag6.9) i.e. 7.1. then used 20x80B and made it same as the brighter star i.e. mag 6.9. was predicted to be 6.0 but my skies don�t do it justice I�m sure. coma size in both c8 and 20x80 approx 3' +/-1'. ----- We've got 2 or 3 more weeks to see it! P.S. I've CC'd this to Astronomy Ireland emailing list. If you want to report your observations of comets, or anything else, please email to observe@astronomy.ie and Anthony Murphy will include them in his new monthly report, starting in the March issue. Make a note of that email address for the future! Note we have a NEW YEAR SALE on at present! Only while stocks last: e.g. �1,000 off some items, 50% off others, Celestron's "Eye-Opening" offer of eyepieces and filters in a case: See http://www.astronomy.ie/sale.html (soon!) or email info@astronomy.ie and we'll send 2 small leaflets with details, put "NEW YEAR SALE" in the subject line. ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open Mon.-Fri. 9:30am-5:30pm and Sat. noon-6pm. Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. http://www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe FREE to AI's Events emailing list) info@astronomy.ie __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com