Panstarrs (again)

[John]

Frustrating night which followed a very promising and clear early evening. Cloud bands and clumps have been sweeping across the sky since 9:00 pm making any lengthy observing impossible. I've had brief glimpses of a number of objects with all 3 of my scopes at one point or another but nothing more than enough to whet the appetite and then the gap is gone.

I've got the ED120 out at the moment in the hope of having a clear patch when Saturn lifts above the rooftops. While waiting the clouds obliged in the opposite direction and I managed to find Comet Panstarrs just below Cassiopeia. The comet is a rather pale shadow of it's former self now. Its around mag 6 I reckon and seems to have lost it's elegant tail, or at least it's not so visible now. The comet appeared to me as an elongated patch of light with a condensed center although the nucleus did not seem as well defined or concentrated as my earlier views. The object rather resembled a slightly eliptical galaxy to me, with a rather offset core. I'm glad I found it again though - this is my 6th viewing of Panstarrs. Could it be the last ?.