The SOHO LASCO C3 camera shows an 8 degree radius around the Sun.
At 1pm AEDT today ISON will be 7.9 degrees from the Sun so it should be visible in this camera. http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/
At 5pm AEDT today Wed ISON will be 7.4 deg from the Sun.
On the 29th Nov at 5:38 am AEDT ISON will be 0.5 deg from the Sun, its closest approach.
See also http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c2/512/
Matt: In moonlight and twilight, I doubt very much if ISON will be naked eye- even in high 3's mag. It's very close to the sun right now so it basically rides alongside twilight time. Try for 3.30am just before the sky starts to brighten too much, from a dark site, and maybe, but I wouldn't count on it I don't think. The only reports I've seen have been "maybe they thought they saw something but wouldn't put money on it" responses.
I help to admin a comet group on facebook, if anyone wants to join in the group, send me a pm.
hi Suzy, I tried with the 12x50 binos that morning but the street light across the road was in my direct line of sight.
some interesting stuff from all these other images thou.
This is the SOHO C3 image of ISON at 16:18 UT on 27 Nov. (3:18 am Thu 28th AEDT)
Antares and the globular M4 are at lower left. The size of the spike on the comet suggests it is brighter than mag 1.1 Antares.
ISON's tail is at least 3 degrees long. The white circle is the Sun and the field diameter is 16 degrees.
"Continuing a history of surprising behavior, material from Comet ISON appeared on the other side of the sun on the evening on Nov. 28, 2013, despite not having been seen in observations during its closest approach to the sun. As ISON appeared to dim and fizzle in several observatories and later could not be seen at all by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory or by ground based solar observatories, many scientists believed it had disintegrated completely. However, a streak of bright material streaming away from the sun appeared in the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory later in the evening. The question remains whether it is merely debris from the comet, or if some portion of the comet's nucleus survived, but late-night analysis from scientists with NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign suggest that there is at least a small nucleus intact." http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/...ved/index.html
"The great question: is that bright thing just a cloud of dust and very fine rubble, soon to disperse? Or will it hold together along the comet's orbit long enough to be seen when it moves far enough from the Sun to be seen from Earth? And do big chunks remain within it that can keep shedding the stuff of a coma and tail in proper comet fashion? " http://www.skyandtelescope.com/commu...193909261.html
