All Eyes on Comet ISON
Will
the comet be a blazing dagger in the daylight, or a faint flicker in the night
sky?
Most of the sky’s events are as predictable
as night and day. But when Comet ISON swings around the sun in late
November, amateurs and professionals alike will be watching in anticipation.
Estimates of its peak brightness vary by a factor of a million!
At the low end, Comet ISON could be
difficult to spot from light-polluted locations. If it hits the high end of the
range, though, the comet could be visible in broad daylight for a few hours
around 1:40 p.m. EST Nov. 28, looking like a fuzzy dot or dagger.
Warning: It will be relatively close to
the sun, so look for it from a location where the sun itself is blocked, and
never point binoculars or a telescope near the sun without a professional-grade
light filter.
The night spectacle is much simpler,
although dark skies and an unobstructed horizon are essential. Try to spot the
comet low in the southeast around 5 a.m. local time on Nov. 17 or 18, when it
passes near the bright star Spica.
After that, the comet will be too close
to the sun to be visible, but it reemerges around Dec. 5. See for yourself what
it is doing. Did it survive its closest approach to the sun intact?
If so, it should now
have a distinct tail. By Dec. 10 that tail could stretch a quarter of the way
across the sky. Then Comet ISON will begin to fade: Watch as it retreats from
the sun, back into the void from where it came.
The entire post can also be found
at:
http://discovermagazine.com/2013/nov/21-urban-skygazer
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