[BAA Comets] IRAS-Araki-Alcock (1983d = C/1983 H1)

[Nick James]

Richard reminded us that today is the 29th anniversary of the last comet 
discovery from the UK (excluding discoveries made using remote 
telescopes and spacecraft). I was at Uni in Bristol at the time and it 
was one of the first comets that I tried to photograph. I remember being 
amazed that I could see it moving past the background stars. In those 
days short exposures and stacking weren't an option so offset guiding 
was the norm. That was extremely challenging on an object moving at 
around 2 arcmin/min!

For those wishing to see how it was reported at the time I've pulled a 
couple of video clips from my archive:

http://www.nickdjames.com/Video/1983-05-11_IRAS-Araki-Alcock.mp4
http://www.nickdjames.com/Video/19830605_SkyAtNight.mp4

Nick.