1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

4 Comets in AM Sky

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by wjtracy, Nov 21, 2013.

  1. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
    11,314
    3,588
    1
    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    We have 4 comets in the morning sky. What do I see? Cloudy every day here.
    The four comets are:
    ISON
    Lovejoy
    LINEAR X1
    Encke

    Did manage to catch Comet Lovejoy bewteen clouds. Most of these comets just look like cloudy smudges in your backyard telescope.

    However ISON brightened last week and is looking good. Thanksgiving day ISON grazes Sun and if it survives (may well not survive) we could get spectacular outbound comet in Decemeber. Nice ISON photo here from today:
    SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

    Anyways it's a good time to get your binoculars and cameras ready.
     
    amm0bob likes this.
  2. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
    11,314
    3,588
    1
    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Minor bummer in space:

    RIP, Comet ISON? Evidence is mounting that Comet ISON did not survive its brush
    with the sun on Nov. 28th. SOHO coronagraph images show the comet apparently
    disintegrating, while first-look images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory did
    not detect the comet moving along its expected path through the sun's
    atmosphere. Check http://spaceweather.com for movies and updates.
     
  3. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2009
    2,325
    1,811
    18
    Location:
    Chicago western burbs
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    More like 3.2 comets now, as ISON is a fuzzy debris field.
     
  4. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
    11,314
    3,588
    1
    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    ...so much for the Comet of the Century...but at just 13 yrs old the century is still young.

    UPDATE: Hold on, looks like Comet ISON is reduced in size but we *might* have a decent remant for viewing in scopes the next few weeks. It gets close to Earth in a few weeks, and that's what bodes well for a decent sight even if reduced in absolute magnitude.
     
  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2004
    8,996
    3,507
    0
    Location:
    Kunming Yunnan China
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    Apparently ISON did not pass close enough to the sun to do the star trek time-travel thing
     
  6. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
    11,314
    3,588
    1
    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Bummer again:

    ISON DIES ... AGAIN: Comet ISON is fading fast as it recedes from the sun. Whatever piece of the comet briefly survived its Thanksgiving Day brush with solar fire is now dissipating in a cloud of dust.

    see SpaceWeather.com
     
  7. DavidA

    DavidA Prius owner since July 2009

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2009
    2,325
    1,811
    18
    Location:
    Chicago western burbs
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Advanced
    Ah well. Only a billion or more big chunks of stuff bumping and grinding away in the Oort Cloud to become future comets.
     
  8. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2006
    11,314
    3,588
    1
    Location:
    Northern VA (NoVA)
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    ...par for the course...believe I read comets like ISON are becoming more common!