Doubles to celebrate the Winter Olympics 2002 Salt Lake City, USA Aperture Ceremony comments by Eddy O'connor

We got the Opening Ceremony telecast a little later than you folk so as the well-wrapped athletes waved to the crowds I kept ducking out around astronomical twilight to find Ikeya-Zhang(would make an excellent herbal remedy).However, it escaped an hour of searching with my 25X100 binox. Clouds kept coming and going while mozzies
(skeeters) kept finding new openings. I returned to consult my charts and drew lines through William's,Valter's, Ilario's, Rosanna's and Jose's entries. William was the clear winner here scoring three double somersaults all above 50º North. I was moved by the entry of the Ground Zero flag and found the symbolism of the light in darkness theme so much in keeping with our Project. I did, however, feel the young boy carrying the lamp could at least have thought of the standard red filter. I ducked out from time to time during the commercial breaks but clouds kept mocking what looked like an
otherwise ideal sky.

I returned to enjoy the delighful pageant of the early settlers of Utah, the Native American welcome - graceful but simple and always the ease of the skaters, young and old,  effortlessly floating in cold space. So may images were of darkness and light, warmth and cold, a whole vibrant night sky tranformed to the small screen. I loved it. Well done to the people of Utah, whose impressive ceremony added both poignancy and joy to a cold, starless night for me. The doubles can wait.
 
  

After recovery from Night One of Comet searching I return to the arena. I am reluctant to let this comet go. At my age you just have so many comets left in your armory. I will give it another try. I take out the 25X100, just to make Paolo's eyes light up and the trusty, much painted 8"Dob.

The Opening Ceremony:
(Purist Double star viewers, and sensitive comet-lovers may like to skip this part!)

Comet C/2002 C1(Ikeya-Zang)
This comet, currently billed at mag. 7.9 was discovered on February 1st by amateurs in Japan and China simultaneously at magnitude 9 with modest reflectors. The comet at present resides in a nondescript area of Cetus and reaches perihelion on March 9th.
This time I probed the darkening twilight sky for about a half an hour with the 25X100, carrying the binoculars all over my lawn to avoid trees near the horizon. Eventually, what looked like the tiniest snow flake in the Universe emerged. Ten minutes later I had
found it in the field of the 8" at low power , with my head in the position of an Olympic Limbo Dancer. My back and neck reacted to this unusual position with all the aplomb of a salivating bull terrier whose bone has suddenly been wrenched from its dripping jaws.
 
From this position I can describe this comet as a small, lifeless blob, not much bigger than Jupiter at high power, with no noticeable features and  no suggestion of a tail. And this within a month of its encounter with the Sun!

Can I be frank? This comet is a damp squid, a nonentity, with all the attraction of a slushy snowball tossed aside by an enraged, semi-decapitated and stretcher-bound skier.
This is a feeble comet, a comet which has dropped out of the Oort Cloud by accident, or been ruthlesslessly shoved out of the Comet Nursery before its time by a moronic and spiteful Matron. Not for this sad comet the fate of gracing the  evening sky like a sparkling necklace such as Arend Roland in the 1950s or the glittering sabre shaft of Hyakutaki in the predawn skies, or even the brazen bulk and media hype of Halley.  No, this is a fledgling comet, destined to be lost in comet lore and soon forgotten. It draws within half a degree of  Mars on March 4th . See it if you can - and weep.
 
Eddy O’connor
Australia