After Ikeya-Zhang many night sky observers must have had great vibs: three great comets in such a short time. Not much more to wish to feed eyes of one generation! And to this euforia we got a new nice piece of news: reasonably bright Comet Machholz will pass Pleiades and climb high into Milkyway.
Again weather had planned to ruin all critical moments: encounter with Pleiades and later with California nebula. Clouds persisted every night after the moon had loosened its grip and heavy rain poured in the critical evening 7/8Jan05. Satellite images suggested of a tight cloud border approaching from West. When TV-weather spoke of "dry air flowing from NW", it was worth to risk and start driving in heavy rain. After 60kms Vega emerged low in NW, ten more kms and it was only 4/8 cloudy and when arriving in observing site, sky was practically clear! My first proper sight of Machholz and so close to Pleiades!
The next few nights were cloudy, but as the encounter with California nebula approached, skies cleared for night 12/13Jan and again for night 14/15Jan. After that I had to wait for 4 weeks for the moon to vanish and to wash clouds away. The very last night before moon again was to spoil dark skies was 11/12Feb and surprisingly it eventually cleared up. And after that again 4 weeks' wait for the next and final encounter: Machholz next to Pole Star. Luckily 9/10Mar was the next (!) clear night and this "grand finale" could be witnessed.
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