Recent observations
Comet McNaught
In spite of Alan Pickup's mention of this comet in his monthly preview of the sky, many were unprepared for it on January 10. At 16:45 that day the ROE Visitor Centre invited staff with the words "Perfect view of comet from rooftop, right now - come along!", but by the time Horst Meyerdierks read this it was too late. Douglas Cooper from Stirling was alerted by a colleague and saw it looking out from the office. Des Loughney saw it the same night without expecting it.
The next evening only few at ROE caught a very short glimpse of C/2006 P1 McNaught. Ian Robson had read the ROE internal message in Seattle and observed and photographed the comet on January 11. But many missed it altogether, including Horst and Bill Ward who on January 11 both stared at similar cloud banks from Blackford Hill and Kelvinside, resp.
Iain McEachran - editor of the Scottish Astronomers Group Magazine - also missed the comet, but a friend of his passed on a picture taken by Colin Smith of Edinburgh.
