Comet Now !
kudbegud
Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
A comet is going on in the sky right now, and we might be able to catch it. A photo-op durring the Shoot Out too?
From an article:
Comet S-W 3 travels a huge distance across the sky from late April through May. Use the big chart directly below to find out precisely where the comet is positioned on any night. The small charts at bottom show how the comet's path is oriented with respect to the horizon at prime viewing times.
In the Evening
By the last week of April, the comet should be bright enough for you to see it easily through a telescope or binoculars from a dark location. It'll be fairly well placed for viewing by 11PM daylight-saving time -- though it's higher and easier to see if you stay up until midnight or later.
Evening viewing gets rapidly more problematic in early May, when the comet starts to plunge toward the horizon and the waxing moon lights up the evening sky. But if you have a telescope and live on the East Coast, you have good reason to persist until 11PM ET on May 7, when S-W 3 passes right next to the Ring Nebula -- a spectacular sight at high magnifcation.
In the Morning
From late April to May 9, conditions are ideal for observing S-W 3 immediately before the sky starts to get light. At this time, the comet is nearly overhead and the moon has already set. Check your local newspaper for the time of sunrise and be sure to start scanning for the comet at least two hours earlier.
The comet gets progressively harder to see starting on May 10, when it gets rapidly lower at each successive dawn and the moon lights up the early-morning sky.
From an article:
Comet S-W 3 travels a huge distance across the sky from late April through May. Use the big chart directly below to find out precisely where the comet is positioned on any night. The small charts at bottom show how the comet's path is oriented with respect to the horizon at prime viewing times.
In the Evening
By the last week of April, the comet should be bright enough for you to see it easily through a telescope or binoculars from a dark location. It'll be fairly well placed for viewing by 11PM daylight-saving time -- though it's higher and easier to see if you stay up until midnight or later.
Evening viewing gets rapidly more problematic in early May, when the comet starts to plunge toward the horizon and the waxing moon lights up the evening sky. But if you have a telescope and live on the East Coast, you have good reason to persist until 11PM ET on May 7, when S-W 3 passes right next to the Ring Nebula -- a spectacular sight at high magnifcation.
In the Morning
From late April to May 9, conditions are ideal for observing S-W 3 immediately before the sky starts to get light. At this time, the comet is nearly overhead and the moon has already set. Check your local newspaper for the time of sunrise and be sure to start scanning for the comet at least two hours earlier.
The comet gets progressively harder to see starting on May 10, when it gets rapidly lower at each successive dawn and the moon lights up the early-morning sky.
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Comments
I remember about 35 years ago when we were kids & walking the cows in for milking before dawn ..watching bennetts comet low in the east. It was much bigger than this photo to me as a smalll kid & looked like a big fire ball with a long tail. It was pretty amazing for us as kids back then. I read somewhere its a 1:10 000 year comet.
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud
Its brightness is +7.4 ...so we may well all be out of luck.
Sun-26.7 (about 400 000 times brighter than full Moon!)Full Moon-12.7Brightest Iridium flares-8Venus (at brightest)-4.4International Space Station-2Sirius (brightest star)-1.44Limit of human eye+6 to +7Limit of 10x50 binoculars+9Pluto+14Limit of Hubble Space Telescope+30
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud
http://www.heavens-above.com/main.asp?Loc=Kihei&Lat=20.785&Lng=-156.466&Alt=13&TZ=UCT10
I set the page to kihei...have a look under comet.
now if i can just identify Hercules or Draco
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud
went to the full sky chart on that link and set the time for 4:30 am 5/5....now at least i can get a lot closer!!!!!
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud
I shot a single frame last year of the Corona Borealis which is the area you want to look to. You see the half circle top middle slighty right.
It's cloudy (as usual) so nothing to see here...
A good article.
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_147_1.asp
A good bit of info on the comet.
Note: On the evening of May 7th for North America, C will pass almost exactly over the Ring Nebula in Lyra! Closest approach should be around 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (3:00 May 8th Universal Time). Mark your calendar.
Bod.
Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer
Reporters sans frontières
that helps a lot.....i was looking in all the wrong places!!!
i'll try in the morning
THANKS!!
http://www.pbase.com/kudbegud