New Comet is Brightest in 30 Years

[dfergie]

[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]New Comet is Brightest in 30 Years [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]By Joe Rao[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist[/FONT]
[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]posted: 04 January 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica]12:28 pm ET[/FONT]

Editor's Note: Updated Jan. 10.
A newfound comet is about to loop around the Sun and might offer skywatchers a rare and fantastic view. But comets are unpredictable, and this one has a wide range of possible outcomes, experts say.

When Australian astronomer Robert McNaught announced Aug. 7 that he had discovered a faint comet on a photograph taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, it was a distant and inconspicuous object. But its orbital motion at once made it clear that this comet, officially catalogued as C/2006 P1, might grow very bright right about now.
Comet McNaught's orbit [video] indicates that it will sweep to within just 15.8 million miles (25.4 million kilometers) of the Sun on Jan. 12. This rather close approach—less than half the average distance of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun—suggests the comet has the potential to briefly evolve into a bright object. The big question is, just how bright?
For more go to...
Source: Space.com

 

[dfergie]

Overcast here...

 

[SatelliteGAL]

I can never see anything in the sky. And today it is/was snowing a littlebit.

 

[dont24]

Overcast here...

Did you just buy a telescope If so, expect cloudy skies for days to come.

 

[dfergie]

Lol... I do see sunlight peeking thru my blinds so before I go to work will check...

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks for the info dfergie, amazing what one learns by just reading Satguys.

 

[Van]

I stepped outside tonight at about 6pm here in north georgia and saw a very very bright and slow moving star on the southwestern horizon, I wish I had binoculars or a scope to see it better but I have been lucky enough since moving down here to have seen this and to have been outside when the space shuttle was docked with mear and I saw them shooting across the sky late at night last summer.

What I did miss was leonid but thats a yearly thing and most all celestial events I can see just by going out to my mothers place though as the region has grown so has the light pollution and a place that 6 years ago at night time with no lights on could be best described as being in a state of " advanced dark " ( cant remember what show that came from but I love it ) is now very dimly lit and its harder to see the milkyway.

 

[dfergie]

Your Welcome... I looked in my Rearview mirror after 6 on the way to work and spotted Venus, but no way to spot a comet (objects may be closer than they appear )

 

[DannyR]

I stepped outside tonight at about 6pm here in north georgia and saw a very very bright and slow moving star on the southwestern horizon

I don't believe this would have been the comet, which would appear stationary to the naked eye, moving only slightly from day to day in the sky.

 

[Foxbat]

All my griping about winter weather pays off when I need clear skies!

 

[Foxbat]

Has anybody been able to find a position chart for Comet McNaught since it rounded the sun?

 

[dfergie]

Heading South
Because it will appear to move rapidly southward after perihelion, Comet McNaught will quickly pass out of sight for viewers in the Northern Hemisphere, and ultimately emerging into the evening sky for observers south of the equator during the second half of January.
Source: Space.com