Comet Gazing...New Friends?

"Date Night!," I texted to my dear hubby. He responded with "where are you taking me?" "Comet gazing" I replied.

After dinner we packed up the camera, tripod and set off on our journey to far yonder hills west of Norman with a spectacular view of the western sky. As we pulled up to our favorite parking spot there was someone already there parked and facing west. We pulled in next to them and proceeded with getting our gear out of the car. The whole area was filled with stargazers.

After getting set up we introduced ourselves to Maggie and John Thompson and their two lovely Morkies, (Maltese and Yorkie cross) Bailey and April. After conversing with them for a while, they were telling us about their Alaskan Trip the summer before, they let it be known they were RVers, had sold their home in OKC and were living in an RV park not far from where we were. Oh My Gosh! Is God putting people in front of us for a reason?  Hmmm...I tend to think so.

Well you can imagine where the conversation led. We were so excited. We exchanged telephone numbers and email addresses and names.

We will return tonight to see if we can see the Comet Pan-STARRS.  Pan-STARRS was discovered in June 2011 by a team of astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PAN-STARRS), a telescope in Hawaii. The comet is officially designated as C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and is thought to take more than 100 million years to make a single orbit around the sun.

A friend of mine took this picture the other night of the comet.  

 

Here is a star chart of where it is in the sky for the next couple of nights. I sure hope Al of the Bayfield Bunch gets some great pictures of it. 

665 Days and counting...