View Single Post
  #1  
Old 25-09-2012, 12:14 PM
CometGuy's Avatar
CometGuy
Registered User

CometGuy is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 942
Bright Xmas Comet 2013?

This morning the discovery of new comet was announced that might become very bright in November and December 2013.

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) was found by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using the 16" f3 reflector of the International Scientific Optical Network located near Kislovodsk, Russia. At Discovery on September the comet, although only magnitude 18, was located 6.3 AU from the sun between the orbit's of Jupiter and Saturn. What makes this an exciting object is that the comet will pass just 0.012 AU from the sun on November 28, 2013, potentially making it very bright. Unfortunately, for southern hemisphere observers the viewing circumstances are poor, although there might be some opportunities to see the brightening comet low in the morning sky as it approaches perihelion and perhaps - if it gets bright enough - in the daytime near the sun.

It must be also pointed out the use of the word "might" here since there is a tremendous amount of unpredictability this far out

Terry

Last edited by CometGuy; 26-09-2012 at 11:56 AM. Reason: Few typos
Reply With Quote