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Old 24-09-2010, 11:13 PM
Rob_K
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Bright, Vic, Australia
Posts: 2,187
Thanks Bojan! Just a word of caution - there has been considerable discussion in comet circles about the expected maximum magnitude of 103P. Whatever it finally reaches (and I haven't seen mag 3.5 mentioned anywhere except in the link you provided), it will be a large, very diffuse object perhaps 40 arcminutes to 1-degree in coma diameter. This means that the brightness will be spread very 'thinly' and it still may take the darkest skies to see it visually. If it's around 4.5-5 mag as most are predicting, remember the expanding comet 17P Holmes not so long ago, which when at similar size and much brighter at mag 3 was not easy to pick up with any light pollution in the sky. I don't think it will be a particularly good display but as we know, anything can happen!

Cheers -
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