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God damn, no one gives a about cool stuff like this?
I guarantee if this was a thread about where to get my snickers bar breaded, deep-fried, and then wrapped in bacon this would be 10 pages.
Not coming back for another 100 million years. Supposed to be easiest to see Tuesday after sunset.
Comet Pan-STARRS Is Closest to Sun Today: See It at Sunset
By Tariq Malik | SPACE.com – 13 hrs ago
A comet sailing through the inner solar system make its closest approach to the sun and will be at its brightest at sunset tonight, but the glare of twilight may make it tricky to see, NASA says.
The Comet Pan-STARRS will be 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) from the surface of the sun when it swings around the star today, and should be bright enough to see without the aid of telescopes or binoculars, weather permitting. But the comet is also appearing low on the western horizon at sunset so some planning is needed to spot the celestial wanderer with the naked eye tonight.
"Look too early and the sky will be too bright," said Rachel Stevenson, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Look too late, the comet will be too low and obstructed by the horizon. This comet has a relatively small window."
A good time to look is about 40 minutes after sunset. The comet may appear as a sort of exclamation point in the evening sky, with the point being the comet itself and its diffuse tail stretching nearly straight up from the horizon, JPL officials added. [How to see the comet]
Comet Pan-STARRS, officially known as comet C/2011 L4 Pan-STARRS, was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PAN-STARRS), a telescope atop the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii. The comet takes more than 100 million years to orbit the sun and appears to come from the Oort cloud, a vast halo of comets and icy objects at the outer edge of the solar system.
While the comet is making its closest pass by the sun tonight, the best views of the object are still to come. NASA scientists said the comet's proximity to the sun may make it too difficult to spot tonight, but that will change over the next few days.
"As it continues its nightly trek across the sky, the comet may get lost in the sun's glare but should return and be visible to the naked eye by March 12," JPL officials explained. "As time marches on in the month of March, the comet will begin to fade away slowly, becoming difficult to view (even with binoculars or small telescopes) by month's end."
And there is another reason to look for comet Pan-STARRS later this week. On Tuesday (March 12), the moon rises into the cosmic display.
"The comet will be joined in the western sky after dark by the slender crescent moon on March 12, 13, and 14," the editors of S ate Magazine, a stargazing publication of the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas. "Good naked-eye views of the comet should continue for several nights, with the comet remaining visible through binoculars into April."
Comet Pan-STARRS is one of three comets capturing the attention of stargazers this year. The Comet Lemmon C/2012 F6 is currently visible to observers in the Southern Hemisphere and at times was in the night sky at the same time, allowing stargazers to capture rare photos of two comets in the sky together.
Meanwhile, the Comet ISON is making its way into the inner solar system and could put on a spectacular cosmic display later this year. Officially designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian amateur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a remotely operated International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) telescope.
Some astronomers have billed Comet ISON as a potential "comet of the century" since it could be brighter than the full moon in daylight when it makes its closest approach to the sun on Nov. 28. At that time, Comet ISON will be much closer to the sun than Comet Pan-STARRS is now. ISON will approach within 800,000 miles (1.2 million km) of the star, making it a true sungrazing comet.
Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at [email protected].
Last edited by baseline bum; 03-10-2013 at 09:32 PM.
God damn, no one gives a about cool stuff like this?
I guarantee if this was a thread about where to get my snickers bar breaded, deep-fried, and then wrapped in bacon this would be 10 pages.
Don't feel bad. No one cares if there is going to be a live action Pokemon movie either.God damn, no one gives a about cool stuff like this?
I guarantee if this was a thread about where to get my snickers bar breaded, deep-fried, and then wrapped in bacon this would be 10 pages.
I give a Baseline! I just didn't see when I was out lookingGod damn, no one gives a about cool stuff like this?
I guarantee if this was a thread about where to get my snickers bar breaded, deep-fried, and then wrapped in bacon this would be 10 pages.
What am I looking for again?
sorry. i saw the le and thought it was a cooking show.
Yeah, I didn't see it yesterday either. Maybe today and surely tomorrow if it's clear.I give a Baseline! I just didn't see when I was out looking
so at about what time should I be looking west? central time zone, of course...
Look about 10 degrees or so above the western horizon 30-50 minutes after sunset. It should be a bit south of due west. Of course you need to be somewhere out in the open with no hills in the way if you want to see 10 degrees above the horizon, as it ain't a lot. To measure 10 degrees, put your arm out at eye level and make a fist (up and down, not sideways). Your fist will subtend about 10 degrees vertically. Your time window is small because it's so low on the horizon and because its magnitude will likely be somewhere from -1 to +1 (-1 is 2.5 times brighter than 0, which is 2.5 times brighter than +1). Even after sunset it takes 15-20 minutes or so before bright stars like Aldebaran (magnitude 0.85) can be seen, and that's at 70 degrees above the horizon, so a comet low on the horizon near the sun may be a of a challenge today. At best you'll likely need binoculars to see the tail. I find it easiest to scan with my peripheral vision than looking straight ahead when trying to find something faint with the naked eye.
Hopefully ISON is a monster in November. I have read some predictions of a magnitude as low as -13, aka, a little brighter than a full moon (-13 is 2.5^13 = 150,000 times brighter than a 0.0), when it is nearest the Sun (if it survives its close encounter, as 800,000 miles ain't ).
Not.. so.. interesting, sorry baseline, *goes back to playing Team Fortress 2
I'd have to drive too many miles to someplace with clear skies.
I tried...didn't see ...
Sorry, was passed out by 7.
Haven't seen it the last two nights, but tonight is going to be one's best chance at it since the moon will form a very convenient beacon for the comet's location today (and today only.)
Its over San Antonio right now tbh.
Finally saw it tonight through binoculars about 8:10-8:35 PM and it was naked-eye visible if you knew exactly where to look for about 10-15 minutes max. Very very dim once it started to get pretty low on the horizon about 8:20 or so, but through the binoculars I could definitely make out a short tail pointed up and to the left. The window of really nice viewing with binoculars having a 5 degree field of vision was 5 minutes max, though it could be found with them for that 25 minutes or so. I wouldn't bother looking for it tomorrow since it will be dimmer and since you won't have the moon to tell you exactly where it should be.
That's cool BaselineI missed it
Finally saw it on my way home from work...around 7:45 pm last night...the sun had just set...it was off to the right just above the horizon...
When I saw this I though that it was about another exciting episode of Pawn Stars….Like the one where Ricks restoration brother brings Rick an old gas pump & then Rick brings it to Rick for restoration….
I saw it, very cool!
BB - check out the view of the comment from Mount Bonnell in Austin yesterday evening!
http://imgur.com/a/W6sb8
Good stuff. I think this is my favorite photo I saw of it (taken yesterday night in Denmark I think):
(Gotta ing love Rayleigh scattering for giving that spectacular color gradient)
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