Hi All,
Good news everyone!
Many of us are looking forward to C/2007 F1 Loneos this year which will be a respectable, almost certainly naked-eye comet that will grace the western sky in Scorpius during the last few days of October and November this year. It is likely to reach somewhere between magnitude 5 to 3 and might sport a nice little tail.
Well, here's the even better news!
Today in IAUC 8877, Comet C/2007 T1 (McNaught) was announced. The _very_ preliminary orbital elements are here:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2007T1.html
It is very difficult to tell how this comet will perform at this stage but given that it has a quite close perihelion approach of about 0.3 AU, I don't think it will be a faint comet. Please note the orbital elements are very preliminary and the track might shift as they are further refined. Greg B, whaddya reckon about the prospects for this new comet?
The present elements have the tracks of these two comets crossing in Scorpius on or about 10th November. On the evening of 9 November they are about 2 degrees apart near Epsilon Scorpii.
Is it possible that we will have two naked eye comets only 2 degrees apart? The 9th November is a Friday night, on a New Moon weekend -- could we ask for more, or is this just an invitation for it to cloud over and piss-down raining for a month?
Wooohooooo!!!!
Best
Les Dalrymple
Contributing Editor
AS&T
