Hi there,

Half year later the comet meets M92 cluster in Hercules. I've missed the closest conjunction yesterday (clouded), but hope for a view tonight. 

Yahoo! - here it is, 11/11/11

Proofpic of 11:11:11 11/11/11 to follow

Hey guys,
Those are very good displays you've captured! 

First NLC was reported from Kyiv, Ukraine on July 10th morning. Still I see nothing from Poltava... pity to tell you, I am rarely able to do it at dawn this year. 

It is already brighter than 9th magnitude, going to peak at +6m in February 2012, and still would be brighter than 10m till June 2012.
See details at Seiichi Yoshida's website http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2009P1/2009P1.html

I have made my first comet observation this year...  well, this gonna be my 12th comet 

July 8/9, 01:25 EET
20х90 bino, LM=11.8m
Comet altitude 40°, Sun altitude -15°, excellent transparency, moderate light pollution, ZNELM~5.7 (Bortle class 5/6)
   2009P1  2011 07 08.98  S  8.9 TJ  9.0B 5  20   2.7 s3            ICQ XX KOS05
Have seen 35 Pegasi (4.9m) both naked-eye and within the same FOV with the comet. Comet is an easy target with averted vision, however moderately faint with direct vision. Something stellar-alike was visible inside the coma.
Sketch to follow 

Forgot to tell, we had 5 rainy days with thunderstorms in a row, just before June 15th. So on Wednesday I felt so  happy like I saved a lot of fuel... 

Hey guys, is anyone here to witness this lunar eclipse? 

Here in Poltava we had great summer conditions, so observed most of the it except from the beginning of penumbral eclipse. A view of umbral eclipse through 20x90 binos is magnificent!  A quick look at what I saw is being attached below.

4.0s @ISO400 f/4.5, camera's 18x zoom.

It is maximal umbral phase (1.70) at 20:10 UT. I'd rough estimate it as 1,5 Danjon scale. Notice also the 7.8mag star to lower right. I will link back to the rest of my photos later. 

That is something very original. I would never get an idea to do a 15 million seconds exposure. 

As I have seen it on the web, the orbit of comet C/2011L4 (PANSTARRS) is still being adjusted. But the most recent ephemeride provides the prospects of maximum +0.8 mag during sping 2013. Oh, wow, I'd be glad to see something brighter than 17P/Holmes! 

An unexpected increase in power of the current cold spell over Eastern Europe takes place during recent two days.

The weather situation could be shortly described as a distinct arctic intrusion.
As for my home, it was 98% clear for last 4 days IN A ROW! 
My meteostation reports daily minima as following (at the same time, maxima are close to -5C):
-21.5C, -22C, -20C, -19C
As you see, it seems to get warmer (and unfortunately the probability of clouds increases).

But I wondered myself when I looked at the meteostation reports from Eastern Ukraine - two recent nights were as cold as -25...-30C (record low today at -30.2C in Bilovods'k, Lugans'ka oblast'). Meanwhile, frosts in neighbouring Russia are just terrifying: regions of Smolensk, Samara and Orenburg report lows at -35...-42C!!! proofpic

Anyway, I like anticyclonic weather in winter! We're going to use the last crystal-clear evening (@-15C) here in Poltava and do some stargazing at the observatory! 

Nice shots Richard! 

Well done guys! It does really seem that there is little need to go to Iceland. 

Any news from the Friday's storm?

I've recenlty discovered one very nice website - livemocha.com - which absolutely satisfies my hobby of learning languages (or maybe teaching too?) 

And another hobby I'd like to mention is collecting money. Not sure, whether it as far as hobby, or just a little passion. However, by this time I have a fair weight (getting close to 1 kilo. soon  ) of different coins - most of them are usual (neither exceptional nor special ones).
Including:
- vast of Ukrainian hryvnas, Russian roubles, Soviet roubles, and a bit of ancient (1900-10's) Russian money
- pretty much of British pence/pounds
- US and Euro cents
- Swiss francs
- French lyrae
- German pfennigs
- Dutch cents
- Hungarian forints
- Romanian and Moldovian leis
- even 1 Ethiopian byrr (but I've got rid of it a few yrs ago)

Does anybody share something similar of these two? 

Not yet....

But 11 ones have been provided today in the morning.
2011-1-11   11:11:11
Have got the proof picture as well... ain't I'm crazy? 

Oh yeah, no. 2 is great! 

Thank you Mark

I have corrected the obscuration graph above with more accurate approximation.
Check this useful website: Eclipse Magnitude & Obscuration