Mornings and Evenings
Seventy-two percent of my comet hunting takes place in the hours after midnight. Edgar Everhart's report (The Astronomical Journal, August 1967) indicated that the morning sky should produce more comets than the evening sky. So I've spent more of my time there and all my discoveries have been in the morning sky.
I plan observations for each lunar month. I'll start in the evening sky about three days after Full Moon. Prior to the advance of the automated sky surveys, which pick up many of the comets that amateurs would have found, in the evening sky I would sweep up to six hours RA from the Sun. But since the year 2000,I have instead covered only a few selected areas in the evening sky, avoiding the areas that the major surveys cover.
As the waning moon reaches 40% full or less, I start sweeping the morning sky. I've determined that under good atmospheric conditions I lose only about a magnitude when the moon is that bright and some distance from my sweeping area. I found 1988j under such conditions.
After I've covered much of the morning sky -- up to eight hours RA from the sun prior to the year 2000, and about six hours since 2000 -- I resweep these areas a few mornings later. Most other comet hunters may have swept here, but an outbursting comet or one simply missed by others due to a crescent moon may be discoverable then. I found 1978l, 1985e, 1986e, 1992k, 1994o and 2004 Q2 under such conditions. Indeed, one reason that some of the comets I have found are strange (outbursting, disintegrating, and/or short perihelion distances) is that I frequently cover large portions of the sky.
There was a time that I swept only in the morning sky. For the first 18 months of my marriage (late 1979) I ceased all evening observations so that I could spend nights home with my wife.
