[X] My Assistant

[MaG]

Is there is any possibility to observe comets in near future from surface of Mars and/or from Mars orbiters. Which types of instruments are possible to use?

For example (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi - position Mars 0deg Longitude, 5deg south Latitude, time UTC):
1) Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)
2013-Oct-01 17:19UTC RA 23 07 44.73 DE +69 27 46.0 MAG 2.93 r 1.637007919902 delta 0.07246306543080

So there is relativly very close encounter in October 2013, about 11 million km from Mars..

2) Comet C/2013 A1 (Sidding Spring)
2014-Oct-19 20:59UTC RA 10 49 50.64 DE -60 38 09.5 MAG -8.29 r 1.401218071277 delta 0.00070643344409

There is still maybe not so precise orbit BUT, there is ONLY about 105 000 km (65 000 miles) encounter from Mars.
Especially the second comet, if this orbit will be OK, is very interesting target to observe.

[James Sorenson]

Fred that is correct, ISON shouldn't have a trail that follows the stars, but should move between long exposure frames and have its own movement or trail if the images were taken with very long exposure. In my opinion, Gerald's heavily processed images do make a good case that it's the comet based on aligning the stars in his image and what starry night spits out, ISON's position aligns very well with his candidate. I'm curious though exactly how he processed those. I did use Opportunity's current position. Hopefully the PDS images will be a help in solidly confirming it when they are released.

[djellison]

Hopefully the PDS images will be a help in solidly confirming it when they are released.

We will know long before then.