Наблюдения кометы стали редки, однако, сегодня в международную кометную рассылку всё же поступило новое письмо:
"C/2009 R1 (McNaught)
I haven't seen many updates lately, so I thought I'd share my latest observation.
I viewed C/2009 R1 (McNaught) this evening from the suburbs of Chicago with my 12-inch (30.5 cm) Newtonian telescope. I've followed the comet 3 of the past 4 days as it sinks lower in the sky. This evening I viewed it from 9:40 pm local time (1 hr and 8 mins after sunset) until it set behind a tree 10 minutes later at 9:54 pm (2:40 - 2:54 UT on July 2). Comet McNaught was clearly fainter than a defocused 5.09 magnitude 65 Aurigae, located about 1 1/2 degrees away, but definitely brighter than a 6.87 magnitude star also nearby. While I'm not an expert at estimating comets in twilight, less than 3 1/2 degrees above the horizon, I'd place Comet McNaught at about 6 magnitude now. Using an 88 power eyepiece, the coma is still well condensed (DC=6) and just over 1 arc minute in size.
This was my 29th and perhaps last observation of C/2009 R1 as the comet's elongation drops to less than 15 degrees from the sun.
If anyone else has viewed the comet lately, I'd be interested in hearing about your observation.
- Todd Augustyniak"
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Наблюдатель пишет о том, что несмотря на низкое положение объекта над горизонтом ему всё же удалось его увидеть, кома в сумеречном небе стала очень маленькой при средней степени конденсации к центру; а блеск находится на уровне шестой величины (надо понимать, что эта оценка очень приблизительна).
