Naked eye Comet ISON for Autumn 2013
Discussion
Silver Smudger said:
MartG said:
turbobloke said:
Could be visible in daylight.
Somewhere there is probably an astronomer tearing his hair out after being misquoted by the press 
On the other hand, we had two very spectauclar comets right at the end of the 20th Century, Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Hale-Bopp was actually visible at dusk, shortly after the sun went down, when the sky was still quite bright.
We won't know how bright Ison is going to get until it actually starts to get a lot closer to the sun.
Eric Mc said:
Silver Smudger said:
MartG said:
turbobloke said:
Could be visible in daylight.
Somewhere there is probably an astronomer tearing his hair out after being misquoted by the press On the other hand, we had two very spectauclar comets right at the end of the 20th Century, Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Hale-Bopp was actually visible at dusk, shortly after the sun went down, when the sky was still quite bright.
We won't know how bright Ison is going to get until it actually starts to get a lot closer to the sun.
Comets are notoriously unpredicatble beasts. Even so, the potential of a nekkid eye comet even at dusk or at night is something to savour, we can then beech about it later when it fizzles to a fud.
turbobloke said:
Eric Mc said:
Silver Smudger said:
MartG said:
turbobloke said:
Could be visible in daylight.
Somewhere there is probably an astronomer tearing his hair out after being misquoted by the press On the other hand, we had two very spectauclar comets right at the end of the 20th Century, Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Hale-Bopp was actually visible at dusk, shortly after the sun went down, when the sky was still quite bright.
We won't know how bright Ison is going to get until it actually starts to get a lot closer to the sun.
Comets are notoriously unpredicatble beasts. Even so, the potential of a nekkid eye comet even at dusk or at night is something to savour, we can then beech about it later when it fizzles to a fud.
Recent commentary.
Excitement is growing among astronomers that a comet predicted to graze the surface of the Sun later in 2013 could be the 'comet of the century'.
According to current predictions, Comet Ison should become visible by late November - and if conditions are right could even outshine the Moon.
The comet was discovered by two Russian astronomers in September last year. Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok used a 15.7 inch reflecting telescope at the International Scientific Optical Network to locate it, creating an almost immediate stir.
When they found Ison - aka C/2012 S1 - it was as far away as Jupiter, more than 625 million miles from Earth - but it is currently heading almost straight towards the Sun. According to some reports it is following a similar path to the great comet of 1680, viewed by Newton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/09/comet-i...
A sun grazer
Discovery pic from the same link:
Excitement is growing among astronomers that a comet predicted to graze the surface of the Sun later in 2013 could be the 'comet of the century'.
According to current predictions, Comet Ison should become visible by late November - and if conditions are right could even outshine the Moon.
The comet was discovered by two Russian astronomers in September last year. Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok used a 15.7 inch reflecting telescope at the International Scientific Optical Network to locate it, creating an almost immediate stir.
When they found Ison - aka C/2012 S1 - it was as far away as Jupiter, more than 625 million miles from Earth - but it is currently heading almost straight towards the Sun. According to some reports it is following a similar path to the great comet of 1680, viewed by Newton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/09/comet-i...
A sun grazer
Discovery pic from the same link:
TB, you might know of this site:- http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/wp-content/uploads/...
If you don't you'll love it I think.
It also quite interesting to show the alignments of planets at dates corresponding to both hot and cold years in the Northern and Southern hemisphere and the depletion and addition factors that our relative position within our little bit of space has on the climate.
Look at the position and think 'bow wave' and 'tidal lag' and there is quite a strong effect on the sway or tendency of temps.
But the other thing is that you can see where the Comet Ison is coming in from and its place relative to the moon.
I hope you like it, it's endlessly fascinating to me, but I'm quite, quite sad in these matters.
If you don't you'll love it I think.
It also quite interesting to show the alignments of planets at dates corresponding to both hot and cold years in the Northern and Southern hemisphere and the depletion and addition factors that our relative position within our little bit of space has on the climate.
Look at the position and think 'bow wave' and 'tidal lag' and there is quite a strong effect on the sway or tendency of temps.
But the other thing is that you can see where the Comet Ison is coming in from and its place relative to the moon.
I hope you like it, it's endlessly fascinating to me, but I'm quite, quite sad in these matters.
t there goes far too many hours....thanks, I think!
London424 said:
Is it a coincidence that Armageddon was on TV last night? 
Could be deliberate, given we had a close miss last night http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-2096...Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff