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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2013-03-21, 05:01

@DrBrianMay Great photo of Pan-STARRS and Stonehenge pic.twitter.com/W1OJvmPDuw



I've observed this comet myself for a few nights this month, starting around March 11th, using 15 x 70 binoculars on a tripod. Actually my GF is the one who has spotted it first. Usually get it around 1900, just picking it out after sunset about 10 - 20 degrees up in the Western sky. The tail looks like the pic above... extending upwards to about 10 or 11 o'clock position for about a degree. Of course, I don't have any pics this nice.

Definitely worth searching for if you've got dark enough skies for it... even if this is just a teaser for Comet ISON in November which (fingers crossed) has potential to become bright enough to be seen in daylight.

Southern Hemisphere viewers have had a good look already (with another comet and Aurora Australis in this video)... now us Northern Hemisphere folk get our chance to see.

Rough guide here is explained in the UniverseToday links below


Pics, videos and tips on finding Comet PanSTARRS can be found here (or search for more links from your local astronomy resources).

BBC story (with video) here

BadAstronomy has pics and an awesome video here from STEREO Spacecraft showing the comet's tail apparently brushing Earth from its perspective (although if this happened, we'd get meteor showers... so it's just a trick of angles in the orbital mechanics of our relative positions) Details and explanation here

Daily Mail story (with photos and multiple videos) here

Happy observing!

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2013-03-21 at 07:24.
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