[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

This has been in the news for a week or so now, with many "experts" predicting it might become very bright around Jan 8-10th in the evening sky as seen from the n hemisphere.

And, after several nights of wasting my time and freezing my fingers off, I'm happy to be able to report my first sighting of Comet McNaught!! Frustrated by great black pillows of cloud in the comet's direction last night, but a very clear WSW horizon tonight lured me back up the sloppy-mud covered track that leads up to Kendal Castle, and from there, at 16.49, I got my first glimpse of the comet. Phew!!

It wasn't visible to the naked eye - well, not my naked eye, anyway - but it is very, very easy to see in binoculars, its head a star-like point and an obvious (and very straight, I thought...) tail stabbing away from it at almost a 45degree angle. The head looked orange-yellowish in my 10x50s, and there seemed, when using averted vision, to be quite a fan-shaped tail sweeping to the upper right. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the comet in a darker sky because it started playing hide and seek behind several horizontal bands of cloud, but my last sighting of it this evening, at 17.05, was very nice... orange-grey sky, streaked with lines of cloud, and Comet McNaught glinting above them like a spark.

Here's hoping others had some luck tonight too!

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Has anyone here managed to spot this potentially brilliant comet? It's VERY low in the sky after sunset or at sunrise but pretty bright. It will make a particularly close pass of the Sun and there are some suggestions it could be visible in daylight to the naked eye for a few days

http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5089276.html

[Guest_Myran_*]

I will always remember comet Hyakutake myself, it was the main comet of the last century. It was clearly visible naked eye even with surrounding city light and we did drive off about 2 km near the city limit and there we could see it was spanning half the sky. Before that I always thought the medieval depictions of large comets in the sky had been one exaggeration. But I was wrong, and luckily so.

Good that you spotted the comet eventually then, your work wasnt for naught then.

[Stu]

Has anyone here managed to spot this potentially brilliant comet? It's VERY low in the sky after sunset or at sunrise but pretty bright. It will make a particularly close pass of the Sun and there are some suggestions it could be visible in daylight to the naked eye for a few days

http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5089276.html

Hey sunspot,

I think we started our comet threads at the same time! I saw it tonight!

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Nothing seen here... but it has been raining ALL day

What did it look like? Was it easy to see?

[nprev]

<clink, clink, clink> southern California light pollution & smog...I couldn't find it, despite clear skies. Maybe I'll try for a daylight sighting tomorrow; seems like there's a bare possibility for this.

[Mongo]

Here is a list I made for my own amusement some time ago, of the greatest naked-eye comets of the last two centuries, visible to observers in the northern temperate regions. I used a points system as follows:

MAGNITUDE: 10 points for every degree of magnitude brighter than +3 (dark-sky; daytime magnitude gets counted separately)

TAIL: 1 point for every two degrees of length of naked-eye visible tail in dark sky

DURATION VISIBLE: 1 point for every month naked-eye visible in dark sky

BONUS POINTS:
2 visible tails = 10 points
5 visible tails (West 1976) = 20 points
15 degree long anti-tail (Arend-Roland 1957) = 10 points
curved tail (Donati 1858) = 5 points
'bright' tail (Daylight 1910) = 10 points
'brilliant' tail (Ikeya-Seki 1965, Great September 1882) = 20 points
circumpolar all night (Hyakutake 1996, Tebbutt 1861) = 10 points
Mag. -3 in daylight (West 1976) or Mag. -5 in daylight (Daylight 1910) = 10 points
Mag. -8 in daylight (Great March 1843) = 15 points
Mag. -15 in daylight (Ikeya-Seki 1965) or Mag. -17 in daylight (Great September 1882) = 30 points

1861 123 pts Tebbutt
1882 101 pts Great September Comet
1910 95 pts P/Halley
1976 90 pts West
1996 78 pts Hyakutake
1997 73 pts Hale-Bopp
1858 68 pts Donati
1965 64 pts Ikeya-Seki
1970 61 pts Bennett
1957 57 pts Arend-Roland
1910 54 pts Daylight Comet
1811 52 pts Great Comet
1843 50 pts Great March Comet
1874 46 pts Coggia
1881 42 pts Great Comet
1807 37 pts Great Comet
1853 37 pts Klinkerfues
1835 35 pts P/Halley
1957 35 pts Mrkos
1860 31 pts Great Comet
1911 29 pts Beljawsky
1911 28 pts Brooks
1819 25 pts Tralles
1854 24 pts Great Comet

Here is the same list in reverse chronological order:

1997 73 pts Hale-Bopp
1996 78 pts Hyakutake
1976 90 pts West
1970 61 pts Bennett
1965 64 pts Ikeya-Seki
1957 57 pts Arend-Roland
1957 35 pts Mrkos
1911 29 pts Beljawsky
1911 28 pts Brooks
1910 95 pts P/Halley
1910 54 pts Daylight Comet
1882 101 pts Great September Comet
1881 42 pts Great Comet
1874 46 pts Coggia
1861 123 pts Tebbutt
1860 31 pts Great Comet
1858 68 pts Donati
1854 24 pts Great Comet
1853 37 pts Klinkerfues
1843 50 pts Great March Comet
1835 35 pts P/Halley
1819 25 pts Tralles
1811 52 pts Great Comet
1807 37 pts Great Comet

Bill

[nprev]

Good that you spotted the comet eventually then, your work wasnt for naught then.

...okay, so if his work was popular with kids and tasty would it be 'for McNaught'?...

Mongo: Truly a neat ranking system! Sure hope that we're all lucky enough to see a Tebbutt or better some fine day...

[Mongo]

Sure hope that we're all lucky enough to see a Tebbutt or better some fine day...

They do show up once in a while. There was a comet even more spectacular than Tebbutt in the year 1744. Discovered by Dirk Klinkenberg in Dec 1743 and studied by Philippe de Chéseaux, it was a bigger, brighter version of Comet West (1976), with no less than six tails visible at one point (see image here - five tails in that image). Klinkenberg-Chéseaux 1744 reached a magnitude of -6 and was visible in daylight, 12 degrees from the sun. Its tail attained a maximum of 90 degrees under night-time conditions, at which point it was about magnitude -3, for a total of 139 points (without any bonus points for a 'bright' tail, which it would probably have deserved), beating the 123 points of Tebbet 1861.

Bill

[nprev]

I've seen that rendition of the 1744 comet before...even more impressive when you consider that it's a recollection (probably from memory) of a naked-eye observation!

Sure hope that the Kreutz group has a few more of these in store...but, sadly, is this a realistic possibility? My impression is that most of the major fragments from the original Kreutz body (errant KBO, I presume), passed perihelion during the middle part of the last millennium.

[Mongo]

There is a chance that Comet McNaught might make that list too. there have been 24 Great Comets in the past 200 years, for an average interval of 8.3 years, and the last Great Comet (Hale-Bopp 1997) was at its most impressive almost 10 years ago. Of course, this means nothing in practical terms -- but we are 'due' for another one.

Here is what comet expert John Bortle has to say about McNaught 2007:

START QUOTE:

As is usually the case for the physical development of a given comet with approach to perihelion, many variables are involved that can not easily be defined beforehand.

Because C/2006 P1 has been so poorly observed up until now, its absolute or intrinsic magnitude, as well as the variable "n", are still quite uncertain and the former figure is typically of great importance in the development of the tails (especially the dust tail). Likewise, particle size relative to sunlight pressure, heliocentric distance and the projection circumstances, all play major rolls in at least the dust tail's apparent length and curvature.

Should Ho be about magnitude 6.5 or fainter, then the dust tail is likely to be fairly weakly and with no more than a few degrees of its length visible in the bright twilight, initially projecting in the same relative direction as calculated for the ion tail around the time of perihelion. One might well expect an appearance similar to a somewhat enhanced version of Ikeya-Zang, or perhaps like Bradfield 2004 F4.

However, if it turns out that C/2006 P1 is actually a major comet, with an Ho around 5 or so, the situation could change rather dramatically (he says, taking a deep and hesitant breath!). In that case, a strong, high surface brightness dust tail is likely to form. And at the same time, tail projection circumstances and the small q should favor much of the length of any dust tail to almost overlap the ion tail for perhaps 1/2 to 2/3's the calculated span, before significantly curving off to the north.

Under the very best of circumstances, from a visual standpoint C/2006 P1 could become a truly spectacular object (especially when factoring in a major forward-scattering event), with possibly a degree or more of tail visible in the daytime, given a really good sky. The overall appearance might be similar to descriptions of the brilliant Comet Skjellerup-Maristan y in 1927, when it was viewed in daylight not far from the Sun.

Immediately following sunset, the comet's head would likely appear a dramatic yellowish hue, due to the strong emission lines of sodium, as would the beginnings of the tail, this often being seen in conjunction with major comets at small q. The intense, almost straight, combined ion-dust tail might be traced 10 or more degrees upwards in the bright sky, with both components becoming much longer as twilight deepens. I would speculate that the overall impression at that time might be somewhat similar to that displayed after sunset by the Great Daylight Comet of 1910, given that the tail projection circumstances happen to be so favorable.

HOWEVER, any such potential grand display is, at the moment, pure speculation. The next few days of twilight observations are likely to tell the true story. And remember, even if C/2006 P1 does develop dramatically, its display is likely to be rather short-lived, both because of the brief duration of the forward-scattering event and the fact that the comet swiftly moves away from the Earth after mid January. So...pray for universally clear weather in mid January!

JBortle

END QUOTE

Bill

[edstrick]

In 1976 or 7, Comet West rounded the sun as a barely news-covered object with a rather small perihelion, and the nucleus split off several chunks, resulting in a massive dust release and spectacular morning apparition as it pulled away from the sun with a quite favorible viewing geometry. It's the most spectacular comet I ever saw, starting with Comet Bennet in about 1970.

[Stu]

Four great comet memories for me...

Standing in a lay-by (that's a small, off-road car parking area, for our non-UK members! ) with my long-suffering but ever-patient and understanding mum, staring at Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock on a chilly night in 1983. It looked like a round chalk smudge in the Little Dipper, very obvious to the naked eye and like a blue-grey puffball in my shaking binoculars. My first "real comet"!

Then 1985, Halley's Comet returned. I "found" it on Bonfire Night, (Nov 5th for our US friends), barely-there in binocs in a sky muddied and blurred with the smoke of all the bonfires burning in and fireworks exploding above my town. A shiver literally ran up my spine - it was there, The Comet, Halley's Comet, the one I'd read about for soooooo long - before I shouted "Yes!!" at the sky, causing a nearby dog walker to ask if I was alright... A month or so later I was asked, by her daughter, to go and show the comet to a very old lady who had seen it in 1910. I went up to the house, set up my trusty 3" Tasco reflector, and swung it around to the comet and asked the old lady to come over and look. To be honest, she knew nothing about astronomy, and to save time I could have just aimed at a star and defocussed it to make it look like a comet, but I didn't... and when she peered into the eyepiece a huge smile broke over her face and she started laughing... I asked why, and she said that her father had shown her the comet in 1910, as a girl, and had told her she's never see it again. "You just proved the old b*****d wrong for me, thank you!" she said. Quite a moment!

Then, I guess, it would have to be seeing Comet Hyakutake on a blustery night in 1996, standing in the shadow of one of the Lake District's beautiful fells at midnight. The sky was mostly cloudy, just the odd gap floating across here and there... in one of those gaps my observing partner and I saw a "beam" of light. Just a vapour trail, we agreed, as it was surely a) too bright, and too far away from the predicted location of the comet's head to be anything to do with Hyakutake... right..? Wrong. Soon after the clouds swept away and there was the comet, painted across the sky like a grey-green lighthouse beam, ridiculously, and I mean ridiculously long. Sweeping it with binoculars we saw brighter areas, clumps, filigree streamers and lines... just beautiful... never forget that...

Finally, standing in the centre of the ancient Castlerigg Stone Circle, on a hillside above Keswick, watching Comet Hale-Bopp rising up from behind another fell, tails first... it looked like someone was shining torches into the sky from behind the fell, the tails were so pronounced, then the head cleared the felltop and standing there, leaning against one of the cold, ancient stones, watching a Great Comet rising, no words were necessary. Beautiful.

McNaught has a lot to live up to...

[remcook]

Did anyone put any pictures on the web of the comet yet? They must have, but I didn't find any recent ones with a quick search...

edit - d'oh!
http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~astrolab/mirr...e/ap070105.html


I clearly remember Hale-Bopp, but not Hyakutake... I was a bit young then and not greatly into astronomy.

[Stu]

Did anyone put any pictures on the web of the comet yet?

There's a gallery at Spaceweather.com

[Bob Shaw]

Apart from the forthcoming SOHO views, does anyone know of any other spacecraft which are slated to observe Comet McNaught? Obviously, few will be able to look at it while it's turning past the Sun!


Bob Shaw

[tasp]

I recall being mesmerized by Comet Bennet as a young teenager. Unusual for me to have seen a comet in the east, as my boyhood home was built on the west slope of a rather large hill. My Bennet recollection was made possible by a timely trip across Kansas from north to south on our way to visit relatives in Oklahoma.

The comet was the highlight of the trip.


Bennet remains for me, my 'standard' comet.

[edstrick]

http://spaceweather.com/ has a link to a pagefull of recent images of the bright comet in BRIGHT twilight. I'm trying to see it before I go to bed this morning.

[ynyralmaen]

Apart from the forthcoming SOHO views, does anyone know of any other spacecraft which are slated to observe Comet McNaught?

Yes - according to this page: http://ares.nrl.navy.mil/sungrazer/index.php?p=latest_news, the STEREO-A spacecraft should be observing it later this week.

[ups]

Let's hope Comet McNaught starts flaring up soon...
______

Michael Jager and Gerald Rhemann photographed comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) from Austria in twilight 45 minutes before sunrise on Jan. 3. Rhemann told SPACE.com they used 7x50 binoculars to find the comet. They estimate that today (Jan. 5) it shone at magnitude +1 and they expect to see it with the naked eye next week. Image used with permission.

space.com .

[djellison]

merged the two topics - we were doubling up.

Complete cloud for the past couple of days here - not a hope in hell of seing the thing.

Doug

[ugordan]

This is probably lack of sleep affecting my mental abilities, but how can the comet be visible at dawn AND at twilight at the same time? Wouldn't that suggest a north-south position w/respect to the Sun -- in wich case it would set/rise at the same time as the Sun? Well, more or less...

EDIT: Aaaargh... nevermind, I got it. Has to do with Earth's tilt so northern objects rise earlier and set later from the northern hemisphere, right?

[akuo]

Yes, the comet is currently about 10 degrees almost directly north of the sun, which means far enough north (like in northern Finland), you could observe the comet all DAY, since the sun doesn't rise over the horizon at all. This would require almost totally clear horizon and good weather, and the weather hasn't been acting nicely at least for me: almost constant rain for the last week or so. I guess I'll miss the chance to see another naked eye comet .

The comet is closing in on sun fast and in a few days it'll be off to the southern declinations and forever gone to us northeners. People of the southern hemisphere might get a good show though.

[ugordan]

If it makes you feel any better, I've got clouds for the past few days as well. The last comet I actually saw was Hale-Bopp!

[Mongo]

It's the same story here -- nothing but 100 percent cloud forecast for the next week to ten days. I also looked at the location of my parents (2000 km away) and they are facing almost the same forecast (with the exception of a possibility of partly clear skys on Thursday). Frustrating is the word, all right.

Bill

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

If it makes you feel any better, I've got clouds for the past few days as well. The last comet I actually saw was Hale-Bopp!

Its been cloudy for about 3 weeks here lol

[djellison]

There is a mutual exclusivity between transient astronomical phenomenon and the British climate - I'm sure of it.

Doug

[Guest_Myran_*]

stu wrote: ......and there was the comet, painted across the sky like a grey-green lighthouse beam, ridiculously, and I mean ridiculously long. Sweeping it with binoculars we saw brighter areas, clumps, filigree streamers and lines... just beautiful... never forget that...

Oh yes, you describe Hyakutake the way I did see it too, from your description it seems clear that also you did see it any of those nights when it passed closest to Earth.

[dvandorn]

The first comet I tried to see was Ikeya-Seki in 1968 (I believe it was). It flew too close to the Sun and disintegrated, if I recall correctly, and so the impressive display we were supposed to see in the northern hemisphere never materialized. (I think I have this right -- I was only 12 at the time, and all I recall really clearly is that I was never able to see the thing, which was a big disappointment at the time.)

The first comet I remember actually seeing was Bennett in 1970. I had received a small telescope (3" reflector) for Christmas, and so when Bennett became clear and naked-eye visible in the early spring, I was out in my back yard (at ridiculous-o'clock-in-the-morrning, especially for a 14-year-old) with my 'scope, looking at the comet. I never saw a nucleus; I think all my 'scope was able to resolve was the coma. The tail was well defined, though, and some very nice knots and streamers were visible, if fainter than I would have expected.

As for more recent comets, Hyakutake wasn't nearly as impressive to me as Hale-Bopp was. Perhaps we in the northern hemisphere didn't get a really good viewing angle on Hyakutake, but all I ever recall seeing of it was a fuzzy blotch in the sky with a tail that you had to look away from it to see -- it faded to invisibility if you looked directly at it.

Hale-Bopp, however... that was the most impressive comet I've ever seen. Its tail was also not as bright and noticeable as I would have expected -- after a certain distance from the nucleus, it was best seen out of the corner of one's eye. But in very clear and dark skies, it was an amazing site.

Especially from the air... you see, in April of '97 I went to England on business, and as we flew through the (very short) night along the Great Circle route up north of the Arctic Circle, I saw the most impressive sight I can ever recall: green curtains of auroral displays draping the horizon, with Hale-Bopp hovering barely five degrees above the horizon, its dust tail forming a great sweeping filament that seemed to flow up and out of the auroras, its ion tail flashing brightest of all, bluish against the green of the auroras.

It was a view worth the price of the trip...

-the other Doug

[Bob Shaw]

There is a mutual exclusivity between transient astronomical phenomenon and the British climate - I'm sure of it.

Doug

Doug:

Unless you TYPE IN CAPITALS, favour green ink and have been regularly IN CONTACT with the good/nasty aliens. Aha.

Then the weather is always *perfectly* clear!


Bob Shaw

[climber]

There is a mutual exclusivity between transient astronomical phenomenon and the British climate - I'm sure of it.

Doug

Don't complain please, I'm the one that has too. I'm in Hawaii (Kawaii) right now and it's raining... and will not stop for another 3 days

[Bob Shaw]

Don't complain please, I'm the one that has too. I'm in Hawaii (Kawaii) right now and it's raining... and will not stop for another 3 days

Pah! Luxury!

Three days? Why, when I were a lad, it rained solidly all year. In fact, happen as you mention it, it rained solidly all year *every* year. Why, we were so wet that...

(and on, and on)

You can't hope to beat British complaints about the weather!


Bob Shaw

[volcanopele]

Not a cloud in the sky here I'll have to take a look tonight (no way I'm getting up that early tomorrow morning...)

[Stu]

Much more rain here in Kendal and I'm going to start building a big boat and rounding up pairs of animals...

[Bob Shaw]

Much more rain here in Kendal and I'm going to start building a big boat and rounding up pairs of animals...

Stu:

A boat? And animals? In pairs?

You had it easy...


Bob Shaw

[climber]

Much more rain here in Kendal and I'm going to start building a big boat and rounding up pairs of animals...

Don't forget Spirit & Oppy. Bob, please NO comment on this, eh !

[nprev]

Man, here in Southern California I've got clear skies and an unobstructed view of the western horizon, and I STILL can't see it due to the <clink> smog/haze and light pollution!!!

[edstrick]

In the spaceweather.com gallery, the furthest south it's been spotted seems to be San Francisco. the lower the lattitude, the flatter the line from sun to comet is to the horizon. It really needs to stick up at a high angle as it does in Scandanavia.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

I saw the comet this morning and it is *very* bright, the sky wasn't very dark but despite this the tail was fairly long and easily visible and the nucleus very bright. It's probably brighter than Hale-Bopp ever was although this is difficult to estimate since the viewing geometry is very different, McNaught was low in the sky when I saw it, buildings and streetlights nearby and my memory isn't perfect.

[ugordan]

They say it topped Hale-Bopp's brightness. Looks like folks in the southern hemisphere might be up for a spectacular show after perihelion. Meanwhile, still %^@!& cloudy here with a hole in the clouds here and there, but never in the right place.

[Guest_Myran_*]

I've seen it finally, I had to rescedule my sleep but now I bagged this one!
Its a nice one. And I think edstrick is right, for a second time we up in the north got one advantage. Halley was completely hopeless for us this time around (Hally of the year 837 are said to have been spectacular thought and comparable to Hyakutake which covered 120 degrees in the sky and a naked eye head 2 degrees wide to mention some fact), then after that treat Hale Bopp didnt get me exited at all.
Yet I concur with ugordan and Bjorn Jonsson MacNaught is a very bight one. To bad the best part will be on the souther hemisphere like with comet West that I never got a good look at. So far I can compare McNaught with Kohoutek - if memory serves me right.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Last night I had a dream I saw the comet

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

http://cometography.com/lcomets/2006p1.html

[ugordan]

Correct me if I'm wrong but as Jan 12 approaches, conditions for viewing will become rapidly unfavorable? That's as little as two days. Those in the north who got to see it, saw it. Those who haven't, won't...

[Stu]

You're right, and I reckon - from using STARRY NIGHT - I have two more days to see it, then that's it, I'll have to watch it cross the SOHO field of view and then grit my teeth as I read reports from the s hemisphere. Forecast is promising for here for tomorrow sunset and Thursday dawn, so fingers crossed...

[ugordan]

Magnitude -2 now!
Maybe we should try finding it in broad daylight?

[ynyralmaen]

Maybe we should try finding it in broad daylight?

It's definitely been photographed in daylight already....
http://www.pbase.com/terrylovejoy/image/72783444

I haven't heard any reports of daylight naked eye observations so far though. A bright comet will always be more challenging than a planet of the same magnitude because the magnitude values given are a measure of the total integrated brightness - all the light from a comet isn't emanating from a tiny disk.

Venus is an easy daytime naked-eye target if you know where to look, so maybe in a couple of days...

[ljk4-1]

Comet McNaught 2006 P/1 Finder Charts from Skymaps.com

Comet McNaught is continuing to brighten and promises to be a bright comet indeed, most likely visible to the unaided eye. In the early part of January, Northern Hemisphere observers can view the comet very low in the western sky just after sunset. The comet will get progressively closer to the Sun each day eventually disappearing from view around 13 January. From mid-January onwards sky watchers in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to catch their first views of the comet just after sunset as it emerges from its journey past the Sun.

The following finder charts for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres show the location of Comet McNaught at sunset relative to Venus and the western horizon. Start looking for Comet McNaught a few minutes after at sunset by using brilliant Venus as a guide. You will require a location with a clear view of the western horizon. Even though the comet may become bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye, a good pair of binoculars or a telescope will reveal much more detail.

http://www.skymaps.com/comets/index.html

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Weird.. I had another Comet dream last night. And the sun has finally come out, might be clear later this afternoon and finally get to see it.

[remcook]

there's some sun here now finally. I'll try and have a look at sunset.

[ugordan]

What exactly is the comet's angular separation from the sun today? I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. That would help a bit in trying to locate the thing in the bright sunset sky. The sky is almost totally clear here as well, hope it holds up for 4 more hours!

[karolp]

And here is a nice ANIMATION of the naughty naught:

http://www.astrostudio.at/common/video/movieMcNaught.php

[Stu]

What's the funniest thing you've ever seen? Peter Kay's Blackpool Tower show? Del Boy falling through that open bar on "Only Fools"? Seinfeld? Monty Python and The Holy Grail? The Christmas episode of "My Family"? (only joking!) Well, I have something to beat them all...

In today's DAILY MAIL, astrologer Jonathan "Show me a bandwagon and I'll jump on it" Cainer has a HUGE feature explaining how Comet McNaught is going to change the world, and is "a portent". Couple of quotes for you... I thought we left this kind of rubbish behind decades ago, but apparently not...

"It may prove auspicious for the Royal Family. Comets usually bode badly for powerful people who are trying to prevent change. World leaders, major religious figures and icons of the establishment can all expect to have their worlds dramatically altered soon".

"It looks like a spaceship standing still in the sky".

And, of Comet Hale-Bopp, and this made me choke on my Rice Krispies:

"It hung in the heavens night after night, eerily portending the death of Diana, Princess of Wales".

He should do a turn on the stage at the Phoenix Club on "Phoenix Nights", seriously.

[karolp]

For comparison: around the time of Discovery mission Polish tabloids used to run a daily feature on how the lives of astronauts are being put on risk again and that they are probably not going to make it this time while in reality there was only some minor non-hazardous technical glitch, I just wonder what they will do with McNaught provided they give it some coverage at all...

[Ames]

Here in the UK the weather has cleared a little and the sun has set.

Go outside and see if you can spot it low down in the west, to the right of venus.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/08j...kymap_north.gif

Nick

[remcook]

woohoo seen it

[Ames]

Got 20 colleagues jostling up against a window in the office.

Spectacular!

It’s my birthday too, best present ever – Hurrah!


Nick

[djellison]

Had a damn good look - but there are too many buildings, streetlights, and , well, too much crap for me to see it here. Not a chance sadly.

Doug

[remcook]

it was quite faint for quite a while. We had a group on the roof of the department.

[Stu]

Sometimes - just sometimes - I absolutely HATE this hobby. Some nights are just cursed, doomed from the start, like mine was tonight.

Clear sky all afternoon, and I made it up to my observing site at Kendal Castle by 3.50, with the sky a peacock blue and scattered here and there with clouds, but the SW sky almost cloud free. Started to set up my scope... tripod out... tube on... eyepeices - no eyepieces! Left them at my flat after cleaning them. So, spotting someone nearby with a tripod and camera I asked him if he was staying for a while, and when he said he was I asked if he would watch my gear while I ran home for the eyepieces. He said yes, no prob, so I ran back down the hill like the b****y Duke of York, grabbed the eyepieces, ran back again... so far so good, sky still clear...

Found the comet! Yaaay! Much brighter than the last time I saw it, tail well developed too...snapped a few pics with my digital, then started to set up the photo tripod borrowed from my girlfriend to take some pics with an SLR... got the tripod set up... rapid release head missing, so no way of mounting the camera...

Meanwhile, the cloud has started to boil up from the horizon, just as some ******* down in town starts to burn car tyres, sending great clouds of blue-white smoke up to and over me...

Managed to get a couple of pics of the comet thru the eyepiece, lovely star-like head and split tail - then it vanished, swallowed up by cloud, and looking up from the eyepeice I saw a mountain of cloud covering the sky from S to W and reaching up to almost 45 degrees altitude. It took more than 40 mins to clear, while the rest of the sky - and I mean the whole of the rest of the sky - was perfectly, perfectly clear...

When the cloud finally moved away from the comet it was beautiful, shining gold, with a tail several degrees long, but there was no time to take any pictures because literally 2 mins later it slid behind the cloud that was hugging the horizon, and was lost, this time with no hope of recovery. All that was left, for a few moments, was a hint of a golden tail, jabbing upfrom behind the cloud like a distant WW2 searchlight, then that too was gone.

The forecast for the rest of the week is so dreadful that I know I won't see the comet again, that's it. Tonight promised so much and I feel like it was ripped away by the sky, and that it laughed at me as it did so, you know?

Maybe next time.

Hope some of you had great views!

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

An advantage of living on the Fens I suppose... very flat

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[akuo]

Caught the comet at last! Saw it 15 minutes after sunset -- the sky was so bright, but the comet was still visible naked eye. It is amazingly bright to be visible with almost blue sky. After that the clouds came and unfortunately I didn't see it during darker sky.

[Tesheiner]

Oh the f****** weather!

I tried to find it on sunday, no chance. Then I said to myself: "No problem at all; it'll be brighter during next week".

And we have cloudy (haze) sky since Monday and the forecast is the same.

[djellison]

The Fens...wow - not far from here really.


Doug

[Bob Shaw]

I've been looking in the morning and the evening for the last few days, but have yet to see a thing - not even Venus!

Bah!

I blame the BBC.



Bob Shaw

[Stu]

Best I managed tonight...





That's the camera looking into my telescope eyepiece... hmmmm, looks like Titan doesn't it... you don't think? No, they wouldn't possibly...

[tasp]

I am in western Iowa north of Omaha Nebraska, and have been watching the comet naked eye for 10 minutes. (5:30 to 5:40 PM CST)

I am indoors now, and the comet is just barely visible through the 2nd floor window facing west.

[tasp]

Still visible from indoors at 5:47 PM CST.

Outdoor view naked eye tail appears 3/4 of a degree long. Indoors, maybe 1/4 degree of tail visible.

'Classic' comet appearance, bright star like head, and fanning tail apparent. Just very tiny though, nowhere near the size of Bennet.

[tasp]

Comet still visible from indoors, just 2 or 3 degrees above the horizon.

Earlier, could not distinguish comet from several jet contrails, but quite obvious now.

[nprev]

...clouded out again in Southern California. In fact, they're calling for not only rain but possibly SNOW at elevations above 1000 ft. tomorrow evening! What are the odds of that happening here during the apparition of a major comet???

(sigh)...please take good pics, guys.

[ugordan]

After two failed attempts yesterday, I gave up on trying to see it. I didn't get practically a single cloud all day yesterday EXCEPT before sunrise AND during sunset. In the morning I had a few thin breaks in the clouds in the east, but it was hopeless. During sunset, it was actually not that bad except several layers of high clouds really gave off a bright red glare for a while after sunset, drowning out anything remotely faint. I just couldn't locate the thing -- had no idea just how big an object I'm actually looking for or what its angular distance from the sun was.
I did get to see Venus, though (yay...)

[AndyG]

I've been looking in the morning and the evening for the last few days, but have yet to see a thing - not even Venus!

Bah!

I blame the BBC.
Bob Shaw

As an ex-employee of said organisation, I would too. However, last night I found myself in a retail park in Coatbridge (for international UMSF readers, this is around 20 km east from Bob in Glasgow) at about 4.30pm - perhaps fifteen minutes after sunset.

By cunningly parking next to Tesco, my siteline to the SW was perfect, as was my proximity to a later essential milk purchase.

The skies were clear and darkening rapidly. Venus, once spotted, was obvious, looking like a stationary version of the landing lights of the jets that fly this way before heading into Glasgow airport.

Oddest of all was the sight to the right of Venus: TWO comets.

The first, a couple of hand-spans away from the planet, was comet McNaught, looking every bit as good as I thought it would - much better than Hale-Bop as I remembered it. Astonishingly lovely.

The second was even brighter. Though admittedly this one was just a major electrical retailer on the south side of the retail park, and of lesser astronomical interest...

Andy

[djellison]

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?rec=902773

Cool trajectory diagram showing why it's being so elusive.

Doug

[SkyeLab]

The BBC have posted some pics of the comet sent in by viewers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6251663.stm

Enjoy.........

Brian

[ugordan]

The BBC have posted some pics of the comet sent in by viewers:

Nice comment on image no. 5:

Comet McNaught is passing close to the Sun, whose gravity pulls material off, giving it a big and visible 'debris field'

[Bob Shaw]

As an ex-employee of said organisation, I would too. However, last night I found myself in a retail park in Coatbridge (for international UMSF readers, this is around 20 km east from Bob in Glasgow) at about 4.30pm - perhaps fifteen minutes after sunset.

...comet McNaught, looking every bit as good as I thought it would - much better than Hale-Bop as I remembered it. Astonishingly lovely.

Andy

Andy:

There you are, in a light-polluted pit, getting a great view. At the same time I'm on top of a hill with a perfect view to the south and west, camera(s), tripod(s) etc set up, binoculars in hand, seeing hee-haw except clouds.

Oh, bad words!


Bob Shaw

[odave]

I had a shot at seeing it last night - there was a nice hole in the clouds around Venus but it didn't extend far enough I'm going to be socked in for the next few days, so I think that's it for me.

For those in North America who don't know about them, Attilla Danko's Clear Sky Clocks are a great tool for observing session planning. He wrote some scripts and an interface to present data from the Canadian Meteorological Center that forecasts hourly cloud cover, transparency, seeing, and other items for the next two days in a specified area (~15km radius). Here's the clock that's nearest to my house, and as you can see tonight and probably tomorrow night's a wash.

Overall I've found the forecasts to be pretty accurate. The only downside is that they've made me very picky about the sky conditions, or at least given me an excuse not to drag my lazy butt out when it's cold

[Holder of the Tw...]

I observed the comet Wednesday evening from downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. I had tried and failed the evening before (both days had remarkably clear skies), but came better equiped the second try. It was visible from 17:50 to 18:15 Central Standard Time.

Once spotted, it was an unmistakable point source with the naked eye. Through 10X50 binoculars, it was amazing. Fat, bright coma with a narrow fan tail extending about half a degree.

Very pleased to get that look. The weather here since and for the immediate future has put an end to the comet show.

[SkyeLab]

Only a few more hours until SOHO gets a peak at it.

Nice write up here:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/

Cheers

Brian

[ugordan]

I got to see it just now on my way home from work. I noticed the sky was fairly clear so I decided to give it one last try. For those of you who are still waiting for sunset and are having trouble locating it:
15 minutes or so after sunset, locate Venus and draw a horizontal line from about 2/3 of its height in the sky. If you're in the mid-latitudes, draw a line at 45 degrees from the point the sun set towards the north. The intersection of the two imaginary lines is the general area you should scan to find it.

The conditions weren't very favorable for viewing and seeing it was a tribute to how bright it actually is. The western sky had some transparent high clouds and some 15 minutes later I noticed the atmosphere was pretty hazy as well as sun rays were tracing a light glow in the air. This, along with the comet's low position, made the contrast rather low as the brightest ray happened to pass over the comet. Nevertheless, through the clouds it did appear to be a star-like point at first sight, with a slight nebulosity to it (it helps to know you're looking at a comet). The tail is pretty small, about 1 degree tops from what I could see in the glowing twilight. It was setting rapidly so conditions weren't getting much better. I wish I had a pair of binoculars, with the naked eye it only appeared to have a slightly curved coma.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Managed to spot it too this evening, although the sky was a little hazy.

[ustrax]

Dr. Bernhard Fleck from ESA and SOHO's Project Scientist was kind enough to answer questions about the comet's observations.

EDITED: If you have any, just shoot them here or send me an e-mail or message untill tomorrow's 1200GMT.

[Stu]

Sometimes - just sometimes - I LOVE this hobby.

Tonight I notched up my third, and most unexpected and possibly most rewarding too, sighting of Comet McNaught. Like the comet, it came from nowhere. I was shopping in town, and coming out of WH Smiths looked up and saw the sky that had previously been a flat sheet of unbroken grey was now tattered and ripped everywhere, with great, tantalising gaps of bright blue showing through. What?!?!? That wasn't supposed to happen! Within half an hour I was setting off up to the Castle again, this time travelling light - just my binocs, digital camera and SLR in my quick-gran rucksack I keep by the door. It's been blowing a gale all day here in Kendal, with sheets of icy rain slapping across the town on and off all day, and as I walked up to the castle again the rain returned and the open patches of clear sky started to close up again, but I kept going, putting faith in the gut feeling I had that after last night's disappointment perhaps, just perhaps, the Universe was going to take pity on me and give me another glimpse of the comet.

I wasn't wrong. Reaching the shelter of the inside of the castle ruins I wedged myself into a corner of one of the ruined towers, steadying myself against the buffetting wind on the high hilltop, and just waited. And, yes... the rain eventually stopped, the sky ripped open again and after sweeping the wounded area above the SW horizon I saw the comet again, even brighter than last night, silvery white against the bruised orange blue sky. Yes!!

For the next half hour the comet and I played hide and seek. It kept slipping behind the drifting clouds, only for me to find it again. At one point, and I'll never forget this, the rain was stinging me from the right, pelting in from the north, while I watched the comet through my binoculars. I was actually observing the comet in the rain... how crazy is that?!?!

There was no chance of taking any pictures tonight: the wind was too strong, slapping me like a hand every time I dared emerge from my little stone shelter, so all I could do was watch the comet through my binocs, grudgingly stopping now and again to wipe rain off the lenses. Eventually the comet won the game of hide and seek, it found a place to hide behind a big, grey wedge of cloud and I just couldn't find it. But to be honest, I didn't care, not like I did last night. Last night I was sure I'd had my last view of the comet, but tonight I proved myself wrong, and it felt pretty good!

Anyway, that was it for tonight, so I packed my binocs away and said goodbye to the comet, surrendering it to the southern sky, cos I'm sure I won't see it a fourth time, and set off back for home.

Before tonight I was sure that for me, Comet McNaught would always be my "nearly comet", the one I nearly saw at its best. After tonight, it'll always be The Comet I Saw In The Rain. Which is pretty cool.

Hope everyone out there's getting some great views too!

[Tesheiner]

Got it!

Finally, after many cloudy days, we had a clean evening sky today. Last chance, I said to myself.
I have a clear view on my backyard to a flat field covering from S to W, perfect to this ocasion (the only concern is/was the weather), so me and the kids went outside at about 18:00 (17:00 UTC) with my camera and the binoculars, but the sky was still too bright to see anything except for the jet contrails; back inside.
The second attempt was at 18:20 (or so) and Venus was easily found to the SW but nothing about the comet. I was a bit disappointed but took the last opportunity right after 18:30 and there it was! Visible with the naked eye and located two or three fingers above the horizon through the red/orange contamination cloud (!) covering the Madrid area.

Beautiful sight with the binoculars. The nucleous was very bright and the tail looked like "mixed" with the haze in the foreground. Another remarkable thing was it's orange look, quite different from the usual "milky look" of the comets I've previously seen.

I did take some photos of it but no luck. Either my camera is not sensitive enough or my arm is not as stable as a tripod. Bet for the second option.

[remcook]

a big cloud on the horizon today and lots of cloud predicted for the nect few days. Till when will it visible?

[djellison]

Well - from tomorrow it's visible in SOHO images - that's probably all the clue you need. Northern Hemispheriques are probably out of luck...perhaps tomorrow AM, and MAAAyyyybe tomorrow night, but I doubt it.

Doug

[hendric]

Hey, anyone ask Steve if one of the MER's would be willing to take a shot at it as it leaves the inner Solar System? That would be totally awesome.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

This was the view here 20 minutes after sunset, the sky was a bit hazy so noting like what it looked like yesterday . Also it was SOOO windy, most of the images are a bit blurred from the camera shaking on the tripod.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Toma B]

...perhaps tomorrow AM, and MAAAyyyybe tomorrow night, but I doubt it.

Good luck Doug!
I saw her yesterday and again today evening...yesterday it was beautiful ( even better with my Chinese built binoculars 7x50 ), but today it was way to close to the western horizon...I will not even try to look for her again tomorrow. I can patiently wait for those SOHO images...

[NMRguy]

Having moved to Amsterdam last year, I kind of wrote off time-sensitive planetary observations. Cloud cover always coincides with comets and meteor showers. This winter has been characteristically dreary, and today was exceptionally bad. Rain, clouds, and wind advisories! Baah.

Extraordinarily enough, the clouds vanished right before sunset. I couldn’t believe my luck! So at 5:30pm, I climbed up to the 14th floor and looked southwest. I found Venus, and sure enough off to the right and not quite half way down was a beautiful fuzzy star. The red glow of the sunset was still prominent near the horizon, correspondingly reducing the apparent brightness of the comet. That I could see anything at all is a testament to the remarkable strength of the comet output.

Overall, the tail was very visible and appeared to be at least two full moon diameters. I am sure that additional darkening would have improved viewing further. But just as quickly as the clouds had disappeared, they returned and consumed Comet McNaught. I count myself among the lucky.

Although McNaught is a very bright comet, I would hesitate from calling it a “Great Comet”. Its orbit precludes it from being widely visible to the public—at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The main show on this side of the sun has always been low in the sky near the horizon. Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere should keep your fingers crossed for a brighter return. And although I do have fonder memories of Hale-Bopp and especially Hyakutake, I would rate this as a very pleasing comet viewing experience.

[Toma B]

...Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere should keep your fingers crossed for a brighter return...

Hmmmm.....
Lets see...does anybody here live in southern hemisphere...
James Canvin Sidney / Australia
Tesheiner ??? / Brazil

Good luck to you guys!
Enjoy!

[Roby72]

Hello all,

Yesterday I have some luck with the clouds here in Austria. McNaught is a nice and bright comet, but currently far away from earth. I remember comet Hyakutakes show in March 1996 with only 15mio km distance. Its tail span almost 50 degrees...

Here you could find my images:

http://www.pbase.com/astrophoto/mc_naught_2007

Robert

[jamescanvin]

B)-->

Hmmmm.....
Lets see...does anybody here live in southern hemisphere...
James Canvin Sidney / Australia
[/quote]

Yup, I've already been scoping out some potential viewing sites. It's still going to be very close to the setting sun for us down here. My problem is I live right in the far east of Sydney (on the coast) so the comet is going to be inland over all the light of Sydney, not to mention that Sydney is quite hilly and getting a good view of the horizon is difficult. I'm still unsure if I have any morning opportunities to see it (not while it's at it's brightest I think, and it is always going to be closer to the horizon than in the evening) as then I am looking out to sea which is of course much better! I just hope the weather plays ball, although it's been cloudless the last few days it's been hot and humid which has made the atmosphere very hazy and each evening I've been looking at the bright white western sky as the sun sets and thinking I'd have no hope if it stays as is.

James

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[Bob Shaw]

Hello all,

Yesterday I have some luck with the clouds here in Austria. McNaught is a nice and bright comet, but currently far away from earth. I remember comet Hyakutakes show in March 1996 with only 15mio km distance. Its tail span almost 50 degrees...


Robert

Robert:

Great images!


Bob Shaw

[Rob Pinnegar]

McNaught is currently clearly visible from downtown Calgary (latitude 51.5 degrees north). Hale-Bopp it ain't, but it's a nice sight, anyways.

[nprev]

I called one of my former co-workers up in Anchorage, Alaska today & told him about McNaught. He's not into astronomy, but he is a photography nut and lives pretty far from town. Maybe we'll get some good pics from him!

[MizarKey]

No luck from 36N Central California

I brought my binoculars (10x50) to work and snuck off a couple of times (3:30pm and 4:30pm) to look for it. I found Venus easily enough but there were a lot of scattered clouds. I just got back in from looking, there's a large cloud bank obscuring the western horizon...it blocked the sun nicely but still no luck.

Hale Bopp was very nice here. The was also a fairly bright comet visible here in 1983, I think it was IRAS-ARAKI-ALCOCK. Wish I could have seen McNaught though.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

It's visible from the STEREO probe now:

http://ares.nrl.navy.mil/sungrazer/index.php?p=latest_news

[nprev]

Man... ...LOOK at that ion tail in the STEREO images!!!

Any chance I can find a cheap ticket to Australia on short notice?

[jamescanvin]

Looks like McNaught is just moving into SOHOs view now.



Not long for us southern hemisphere folk now.

James