Howdy all, Peter Williams wrote on Sat, 29 May 1999 15:38:07 +1000: >Incidently, I do not make Eta Car as bright as has been reported. On most >nights I have been able to hold HD92964 comfortably with the naked eye from >Heathcote but require a little too much imagination to see Eta. My current >estimates with 10x50mm binoculars place Eta Car at 5.6. Perhaps this >merely represents different results for the visual observer? I won't be surprised if so. There is a HST/WFPC observation scheduled next month (early June is all I know) by Jon Morse, JILA, Colorado. I hope that help settle the issue on Eta's brightness (though it won't be any Johnson V filter used there). BTW, I happened to be at the Big Island in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. Well I've been studying Eta Carinae for 3 years, and for the first time I saw the actual star with a small pair of binocular; but I couldn't tell squat with naked eyes.(it took me 5 minutes to spot; but it took me 2 hours of driving to find clear sky in that island!!) So I was guessing that the magnitude wasn't less than 5.0, which was about as faint as I can see, then. But, hey, it was my first time...(besides, sec.z = 5.6 there; go figure). Thanks for looking, Cheers. Bish -- ...................................................................... "Bish" Kazunori Ishibashi - (W)1-612-6261756 - bish@astro.spa.umn.edu Department of Astronomy (F)1-612-6262029 University of Minnesota X-ray/UV -- Eta Carinae Group 116 Church St. S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455 ......................................................................