Anyone optimistic about Comet Ison?

M

Mike D90

Senior Member
I am following this comet and am excited and hopeful it will make it around the Sun and give us a good show for December. I just hope, that if it does make it, we will be able to see its display here in North America.

What are your thoughts on this comet? Gonna make it or not?
 
M

Mike D90

Senior Member
Rick M said:
I'm hoping it goes buy us :).
Click to expand...

It's already way past us. It enters the Sun's corona(?) Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and will either die, break up into pieces or circle the Sun and head back out into space . . . or so the scientists say.
 
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Browncoat

Browncoat

Senior Member
After reading about it on the NASA site, it won't be viewable with the naked eye until December/early January. If it survives that long.

​Probably won't be much of a photo op next week unless you've got some very high end space gear. ;)
 
Marilynne

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
IsonVic_1124_341px.jpg

Where to look for Comet ISON low in early dawn. On Saturday morning the 23rd, it's directly right of Mercury and Saturn. It's dropping lower and becoming much harder to detect every day! Mercury and Saturn are much brighter; start with them to find the spot to examine for the comet with binoculars or a wide-field telescope. The comet symbol is exaggerated. For scale, these scenes are two or three times as wide as your fist held at arm's length.
The illustrations are free to reproduce anywhere with credit including a link to SkyandTelescope.com.

SkyandTelescope.com
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
I posted a photo of it from Thursday morning. It was not visible to the naked eye or even with binoculars as suggested, but I aimed in the direction it was supposed to be and managed to capture it. Not very bright, but there's a lot of light pollution in NJ, even in the very rural part I live in. My understanding is that those who have been able to observe it believe that changes they are witnessing in the tail may mean that it's breaking up, but they have no way of knowing. Everything I've read has said that November 28 is when it should be brightest in the sky, and fro there it will be visible for a couple weeks thru mid-December. I've read nothing about December into January.
 
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