Anyone who tried to join me in observing LONEOS tonight at the end of Acre Ave. didn’t find me there. Cove is the next street north on New Meadow on the left side. Acre’s the second street north.
What did you miss? A wonderfully peaceful red sunset. And the comet. What did I miss? You. And the comet. I was able to make out two or three 4th magnitude stars to the left of and at the same height above the horizon as Arcturus, But dropping down and to the left (south) I couldn’t see any stars where a later check showed there to be some relatively bright 5th magnitude stars.
The later check also jolted me as I should have been observing 8° down and to the NORTH, not to the SOUTH.
Well, if I couldn’t see to 5th magnitude to the left I wouldn’t have seen it to the right either. How’s that for sour grapes?
Adding to the embarrassment, I’m told that two folks from my class did try to find me at the end of Acre. I’d promised to open up the observatory for them if the sky was workable as tonight was the scheduled class night that I canceled due to the forecast. It was pretty marginal with a high haze, and cloud did move in by 19:45. Hmmm. More sour grapes.
Sunday, Oct 21st, is presently the next forecast observing night. And this time LONEOS will be 5° down and to the south from Arcturus. I’m just ahead of time a wee bit. The good news is that LONEOS will have brightened to 6th mag. The bad news is that it’ll only be 10° above the horizon.
If the sky’s clear, look for another invite. I may even get it right next time.
Another southern hemisphere blazer 
If we can find the right street... 