Comet Halley, April 3, 1986

Original drawing made using white pencil on black paper:

Same drawing on a white background:

Comet Halley, April 3, 1986, 7:45 - 8:15 UT, seeing 6 (0 worst, 10 best), transparency 5.5. Field of view: 1.43 degrees.

Astro-Physics 4" f/6 refractor on Super Polaris mount. Magnification 35x - 81x.

Coma seemed larger this morning, very diffuse, with the pseudo-nucleus appearing slightly brighter. Noted faint dust tail, but comet no longer appeared to have a gas tail. I found out later that the gas tail had disconnected, which made the comet much less impressive during its closest approach to earth in late April.