he says 'On Jan 15, the comet is closest to the earth at a distance of 0.82AU but it is still only 7 degrees away from the Sun. After sunset however, observers should attempt to view the comets gas (ion) tail as it appears perpendicular to the horizon and, if sufficiently long enough, may be glimpsed from a dark sky site through binoculars!'
[edit by iceman]
- For images and pictures: thread here
- For general discussion about the comet: thread here
These 3 maps show the comets position from Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart soon after Sunset for a month from 15/1 to 14/2/07.
Use Venus to help locate the comet. The Sun is the circle below and to the left of Mercury. The vertical line #225 is South West.
Times are Brisbane 7pm EST, Sydney and Hobart 8:30pm DST.
The Melbourne map gives an idea of the comets path in the morning sky.
The other 3 maps show what it is like in the evening at different places.
Adelaide and Perth will be like Sydney in the evening. In Melbourne the comet will be higher in the sky than Sydney but not as high as Hobart.
Some people are asking questions about when to see the comet.
In the Morning
At the moment it is below the horizon for us when the Sun rises. On 18/1 it will rise at the same time as the Sun and after that it will rise in the SE before the Sun. It should be visible about a week after that.
Evening
In the evening it is setting before the Sun now. It will set just after the Sun on 13/1 but will only be visible then if it is very bright. By 17/1 it will be about 10 degrees above the horizon at sunset and a bit to the left of the Sun.
It all depends on how bright the comet and its tail are, it might be a daylight comet. It also depends on where you live, Hobart is better than Darwin because the comet will be higher in the sky.
Even though I merged 2 threads the other day, I think Glen is right in having separate threads because otherwise the 1 thread will get very large, and people will keep posting "how do I find it" because the thread is too big to find the maps etc.
So i've created 3 threads, please try and keep your posts to the appropriate thread. I may move posts from time to time to keep them on-topic for the thread title.
I've made all the threads sticky, so you'll find them in the top section of the thread listing.
Glen, Michael Mattiazzo's chart shows p1 passing through Indus whereas you show it the other side of Peacock. Comment not judgement. Or have I missed something? Ron
There are two track types. Track type Alt/Az gives the results in previous posts.
Using track type RA/Dec I got the following for Brisbane at 7pm.
SkyMapPro says.
Track type
This section of the dialog specifies the basic type of track displayed. Selecting RA/Dec will display a track showing the movement of the object in right ascension and declination; this is the "normal" type of object track and should be selected when you wish to see the movement of the object relative to the stars. Selecting Alt/Az will display a track showing the movement of the object in altitude and azimuth; this type of track shows the movement of the object relative to the local horizon, and can be used for such tasks as displaying the Sun's "analemma", or seeing when Mercury is best placed for observation in the morning or evening sky.
It seems to be a problem with the way I used SkyMapPro to draw a track. When I advanced one day at a time P1 went through Indus. Thanks for pointing that out. See the attached file.
You've already pointed out the alt/az vs Ra/Dec thing, but I'd like to point out that it's a good idea to remember to click the Map Time button in SkyMap Pro, or it defaults to plotting postions at midnight.
I have a handy downloadable - B&W printable map at Southen Skywatch. If anyone want's I can make PDF versions available.
And I've created a Celestia SSC file for any Celestia users out there, download it here.
The alt/az maps show the comets height above the horizon best but they do not show its position correctly with respect to the stars. That doesn't matter during twilight when the stars are not visible.
