The Comets ZTF, etc.
Among my sub-interests in the hobby of visual astronomy, the pursuit of comets is one of my favorites. I've been entranced by comets since seeing Halley's in 1985-86. Part of the allure is their fleeting appearance. I love to observe deep-sky objects such as galaxies and star clusters, but with few exceptions they are the same night after night. It's always possible to get a better view of a given object on a better night, or with a better telescope or better skills. But the comet that is observable tonight will have moved a bit (or a lot) by tomorrow, and over the course of a few nights is likely to show changes in brightness or morphology. Comets combine the elusive fuzziness of deep-sky objects with the variability of planets. So it's not surprising that my first two observing sessions of 2023 focused on comets. On Thursday the 19th, I got a text that astronomy friends Greg and Bobby would be going to a local site in the evening. With work on Friday, I hadn't bee