skywatching

Son Joe and I went out looking for comet McNaught around dusk tonight, It was the clearest / last night for us to see this ball of rock and ice cutting through the inner solar system. We have a horseshoe of hills around the village and I had checked out a couple of websites to get some rough idea of where / when to see it best.
We did get one shot but I'm not sure it isn't one of the half a dozen or so airplane trails you see at any one time, circling for landing over the hills at Manchester Airport..
Despite lack of a definitive comet shot I enjoyed the slight sense of occasion at driving up on the tops and braving the wind (a jet stream in itself) with the most outdoors and nature-inspired of the kids. Over the years we have hit the hills to see comet hale-bop, an eclipse (perhaps partial), a lunar eclipse (mostly seen from the back of the house with a glass of whiskey, very nice) and some mother of pearl weirdness clouds one summer. Good fun and quiet moments of shared intrigue at that that lies outside of the (often cloudy) atmosphere that enshrouds us.