Just been looking for a daylight glimpse over Adelaide, took some finding, but finally found a pinpoint with a very faint tail. Plenty of tadpoles moving around, but finally one that stayed in the same place. Skies very clear here at the moment, hopefully stay that way for the evening viewing
Do we have an estimate of how long the comet will hang around where it will be generally viewable? I read that after the 15th it will start to rapidly lose magnitude. Is this correct? Also after today will it be more observable after the sun goes down i.e. will it appear just over the horizon later at night.
The comet should hang around for quite some time. According to SN it will still be a relatively easy binocular comet in mid February @ mag 6.6 (current prediction). Unfortunately even then it will only be 16 deg above the SW horizon (Bris Vegas). About this time it will become circum polar for southern states, but still only visible about an hour after sunset then looses altitude until it is about 15 deg above the SSE horizon at sunrise again. Only mag 7.7 or so then.
G'day All,
<SNIP>
It is a crying shame that the Courier Mail has published such an atrocious article about the comet. The journalist and his correspondant have managed to make a complete dog's breakfast of what should have been a very simple article. It is on page 3 of today's (15th Jan) Courier Mail. In an article only 9 small paragraphs long, there are 6 paragraphs with glaring errors.
<SNIP
Peter.
The comet should hang around for quite some time. According to SN it will still be a relatively easy binocular comet in mid February @ mag 6.6 (current prediction). Unfortunately even then it will only be 16 deg above the SW horizon (Bris Vegas). About this time it will become circum polar for southern states, but still only visible about an hour after sunset then looses altitude until it is about 15 deg above the SSE horizon at sunrise again. Only mag 7.7 or so then.
Thank you for that - it is good to hear this. One of the troubles I have been having is viewing the comet so close to the sun. I was hoping that the comet may "distance" itself from the Sun to enable some viewing without the glare.
If memory serves me correct, you are in North Qld aren't you? If that's the case you are going to have more of a challenge. The further north the lower it will be, eg tonight; Townsville alt @ sunset about 7 deg 31', Brisbane 8 deg 8' and Sydney 8deg 37'. In a month time Townsville = 12 deg 47', Brisbane 18 deg 4' and Sydney 23 deg 11'.
If memory serves me correct, you are in North Qld aren't you? If that's the case you are going to have more of a challenge. The further north the lower it will be, eg tonight; Townsville alt @ sunset about 7 deg 31', Brisbane 8 deg 8' and Sydney 8deg 37'. In a month time Townsville = 12 deg 47', Brisbane 18 deg 4' and Sydney 23 deg 11'.
Yes, in Mackay. Bit of a bugger, but hey, swings and roundabouts when viewing other objects
Wow, what a nice jet contrail! If only the comet looked like that...
I saw several of them coming over the mountains yesterday passing right by the comet. They were very useful in helping me see the comet with the naked eye, once I'd identified where it was relative to the aircraft.
At last! I saw the comet this evening - just. It appeared through/between the clouds here in Brisbane. I looked at it through 10x50 binoculars, and tried taking a photo by holding a 4mp digital camera up to the binoculars. Unfortunately I didn't hold the camera steady enough for most of the images. The best (cropped) is attached. I wish I knew how to manipulate the image to bring out the comet more.
Just went up to the local lookout to curse at the clouds .. and there it was
cloud everwhere across the western sky .. except for a 5 degree hole that had an amazingly bright comet streaking through it .
Well, engulfed in a shark-shaped cloud, anyway, as seen from southern Canberra.
Just made it before a phalanx of thunderstorms started moving down from the north. Naked eye but only just, easy in 10x50 binocs, when away from the cloud. The nucleus looked elongated tonight. I wonder if it's breaking up?
Just went over to a great lookout in Putney, Sydney, and eventually found the comet after a few minutes of searching with my binoculars. Spectacular sight, I found that the comet grew brighter as the sunset progressed.
Unfortunately though the comet was eaten by the oncoming clouds/smog/smoke on the western horizon.
I had previously seen Hale-Bopp, but that was ages ago (I was only 7). This, though, was truly spectacular and a sight I will never erase from my mind. I was also lucky enough to take a few photos with my old school nikkon SLR with telephoto lens- so I will be surprised at the results I will get.
Had a reasonable view of the comet this evening although there was heavy smoke pollution to the west, was easily found and was a lot brighter than I though it would be, though 10x50 binos, there was a sharp, almost star like center with a fine coma and reasonable, fan like tail, as the sky darkened, I found that it was easily seen with the naked eye, not as bright as Venus but definately visible.
I could not follow it all the way to the horizon due to the smoke haze, it was getting quite red when it finally disappeared into the haze, it was still a bit too bright to see a long tail.
A good day, observed the comet at 1130 this morning with the telescope, a small round bright star like ceter with the hint of a coma and this evening through the 10 x 50 bino's
WOW!!!
was it my imagination or was it brighter and the tail longer tonight? what a brilliant sight!
I was driving home from work @ about 8:20 and saw it and imediately thought 'ok now just a bit south of there is the comet' thinking it was venus smudged by my windscreen. dispite the cloud cover (not much of it) the comet was even better than last night
I stopped at teh top of my street to look too, to find another person up there with binos and a camera. the comet soon disapeared atfer that.
After observing the comet in the 16cm reflector this afternoon, I decided to go mobile to try and find a thinning on the cirrus out to the west. Managed to find a spot where the high cloud wasn't as thick and pulled over right on sunset when the comet and 0.5 degree of tail was immediately seen in 15 x 70 binoculars. It soon dropped into the cirrus so I moved to a better location nearby with less obstructions on the horizon. The comet dropped through the cirrus and scatter cloud and the best views were at 17:18 EST when the coma and 1 degree of tail shone clearly through a thinner section of cirrus (see picture in the images thread) It was difficult to get a good brightness estimate but I think mag -3.0 would not be too far from the truth.
Neil!
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