#1  
Old 25-09-2012, 11:14 AM
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 10:56 AM. Reason: Few typos
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 25-09-2012, 04:27 PM
Suzy's Avatar
Suzy
Searching for Travolta...

Suzy is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Brisbane, Australia.
Posts: 3,700
Thanks Terry. How exciting (possibly!). It's about time the northern hemisphere had a comet. Pity for us though.

Could this be viewable up north, say Cairns? Or is it too early to tell
I'd be keen to make the trip I think, I just love those comets.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 25-09-2012, 05:11 PM
Rob_K
Registered User

Rob_K is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Bright, Vic, Australia
Posts: 2,158
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzy View Post
Could this be viewable up north, say Cairns? Or is it too early to tell
I'd be keen to make the trip I think, I just love those comets.
If the tail was long enough and bright enough you might get a view of it from Cairns in late morning twilight in the east after perihelion, making a fairly low angle to the horizon. But as Terry said, there's a fair way to go yet - this is a preliminary orbit. Also, end of November into early December will be into the Wet, maybe Liz could assess the chances of actually getting clear skies.

Cheers -
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 25-09-2012, 05:34 PM
Liz's Avatar
Liz
Registered User

Liz is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Beautiful SE Tassie
Posts: 4,734
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_K View Post
If the tail was long enough and bright enough you might get a view of it from Cairns in late morning twilight in the east after perihelion, making a fairly low angle to the horizon. But as Terry said, there's a fair way to go yet - this is a preliminary orbit. Also, end of November into early December will be into the Wet, maybe Liz could assess the chances of actually getting clear skies.

Cheers -
Yes, the weather could be tricky, but hopefully there will be a period of time where it will be bright, and it cant be cloudy evvvvery day!!

I wonder the chances of it fizzing out into the Sun???

I am heading to Samoa early November for my nieces wedding, and well, could mosey on up North from there, very tempted. Think I need to buy lots of lotto tickets!!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 25-09-2012, 06:23 PM
colinmlegg's Avatar
colinmlegg (Colin)
Registered User

colinmlegg is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 610
And new moon around December 2nd . Wow! Hope it holds together.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 25-09-2012, 06:42 PM
JB80's Avatar
JB80 (Jarrod)
Aussie abroad.

JB80 is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Alicante, Spain.
Posts: 1,156
2013 huh?

Knowing my luck we'd of moved back to Oz by then.
If not then I look forward wholeheartedly to this one.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 25-09-2012, 08:04 PM
Greg Bryant
AS&T Editor

Greg Bryant is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Sydney
Posts: 351
The orbit is quite certain as there are two sets of observations that extend the calculation arc to 9 months.

I'm looking forward to seeing how bright the comet is about this time next year. That will give us a good idea as to how it will perform on the "inner leg" of its orbit.

Greg
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 25-09-2012, 10:15 PM
astroron's Avatar
astroron (Ron)
Supernova Searcher

astroron is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Cambroon Queensland Australia
Posts: 9,312
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suzy View Post
Thanks Terry. How exciting (possibly!). It's about time the northern hemisphere had a comet. Pity for us though.

Could this be viewable up north, say Cairns? Or is it too early to tell
I'd be keen to make the trip I think, I just love those comets.
Suzy,It could be my Birthday Comet
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 25-09-2012, 10:17 PM
OzEclipse's Avatar
OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
Registered User

OzEclipse is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,176
Comet during totality?

Next years total eclipse is on Nov 3rd, and in the northern hemispehere. The comet would need to be very bright to be visible during totality as it's only a hybrid with a small umbra. But you never know your luck. Fingers and toes crossed.

I'll be on a luxury 95 passenger yacht in the mid-Atlantic to intercept the eclipse.
Joe Cali
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 27-09-2012, 07:09 PM
Zhou's Avatar
Zhou (Mick)
Fun in water

Zhou is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Dongguan, China
Posts: 130
Cool! I just saw the news on the ABC website:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articl...27/3599034.htm

Quote:
Some reports have suggested the comet could be as bright as magnitude -11 or even -16, making it more than 1000 times brighter than the planet Venus and almost as bright as a full Moon.
"It's an unknown," says Hartley. "It could be a dazzler or a complete washout, that's the problem with comets like this one."
I will be well chuffed if it got anywhere as bright as this, the weather will be perfect here in November (dry season).

Last edited by Zhou; 27-09-2012 at 07:55 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 27-09-2012, 07:43 PM
RobF's Avatar
RobF (Rob)
Mostly harmless...

RobF is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 5,716
Adam, is there going to be a XMAS eve charter flight north of equator this year to continue the tradition?

Last edited by RobF; 27-09-2012 at 08:26 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 27-09-2012, 08:36 PM
CometGuy's Avatar
CometGuy
Registered User

CometGuy is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 942
I like the phrase "Some reports " or "It has been said " meaning that you can make something up with no evidence and pass it as fact! i.e "some reports suggested the comet be as bright as mag -11 to -16"


Terry
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 28-09-2012, 06:30 AM
MrAstro (Andrew)
Registered User

MrAstro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 13
Does anyone know what constellation(s) it will be in when it potentially peaks? I can only find vague references to it being favourable for northern hemisphere observers.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 28-09-2012, 06:42 AM
mithrandir's Avatar
mithrandir (Andrew)
Registered User

mithrandir is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Glenhaven
Posts: 4,161
CdC/Stellarium/C2A/TheSky/... will predict it for you. Using the current orbital elements on Nov 3 2013 it will be in Leo, mag ~6 and 50 deg from the sun.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 28-09-2012, 07:52 AM
Analog6's Avatar
Analog6 (Odille)
Registered User

Analog6 is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Glenorchy, Tasmania, Australia
Posts: 430
Quote:
Originally Posted by mithrandir View Post
CdC/Stellarium/C2A/TheSky/... will predict it for you. Using the current orbital elements on Nov 3 2013 it will be in Leo, mag ~6 and 50 deg from the sun.
I went and tried the Import objects following the excellent How To given to me earlier in another comet thread, and it could not find Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). This was in a search under the MPC orbital window, and I tried 'Import All' as well. Is it not in there yet?
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 28-09-2012, 08:20 AM
mithrandir's Avatar
mithrandir (Andrew)
Registered User

mithrandir is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Glenhaven
Posts: 4,161
Quote:
Originally Posted by Analog6 View Post
I went and tried the Import objects following the excellent How To given to me earlier in another comet thread, and it could not find Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). This was in a search under the MPC orbital window, and I tried 'Import All' as well. Is it not in there yet?
Odille, what program are you using? C/2012 S1 is in the current "MPEC list of observable comets" and TheSky6, C2A, CdC and Stellarium find it. Don't use the Stellarium individual object lookup. The numbers it gets at the moment appear to be strange.

Once you find it, go to Nov 24 1023, 05:10:00 and you'll see Mercury, Saturn, C/2012 S1, 2P/Enke, P/2011 B1 and 33311 Deucalion within a 7x7 degree area.

Last edited by mithrandir; 28-09-2012 at 08:37 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 29-09-2012, 02:42 PM
andyc's Avatar
andyc (Andy)
Registered User

andyc is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,003
It's going to be well worth considering good responses to claims of the comet becoming brighter than the Full Moon. Have already seen a number of mentions of this on the Internet - somebody, somewhere has suggested it might make mag -16, which is ludicrous. But lots of people are now taking it as a proper prediction. With a more realistic forecast maybe being McNaught scale and if we're lucky a bit brighter, it would be good to get people to keep a sense of perspective! Otherwise there'll be a lot of disappointed people out there who won't trust astronomers so much. But the media do so love a dramatic 'story'...
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 02-10-2012, 07:30 AM
ZeroID's Avatar
ZeroID (Brent)
Lost in Space ....

ZeroID is offline
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posts: 4,949
"McNaught" scale would be awesome, I got a few great pix of McNaught when it passed through. Fingers crossed it comes close to that and we at least get a glimpse down here in southern climes.
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 02-10-2012, 10:35 AM
Rob_K
Registered User

Rob_K is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Bright, Vic, Australia
Posts: 2,158
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (be prepared small.jpg)
131.8 KB108 views
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 02-10-2012, 11:20 AM
CometGuy's Avatar
CometGuy
Registered User

CometGuy is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 942
lolol Rob
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +10. The time is now 09:00 PM.

Powered by vBulletin Version 3.8.7 | Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Advertisement
Bintel
Advertisement
Testar
Advertisement