Comet ISON

[andrew63]

This is a pretty insignificant image now of ISON - but I wonder what will become of it? It should be a gripping journey to follow!

Astronomy Picture of the Day

andrew

[Tinker1947]

Very interesting, thanks for that Andrew

[Stu]

Nice one Andrew. Looking forward to following this one, hope it turns out to be a good'un

Stu

[starnut]

Something to look forwards to

[yeti monster]

Mmmm.... "late December 2013" do you think, perhaps, those Mayans might have been a year out?

[PreludeToADream]

Something to look forward to in 2013! Could be exciting.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I think later images might be more impressive

[sologuitarist61]

Fingers crossed that it develops well over the coming months

[NickH]

We've been doing some analysis on it, here's the results

http://remanzacco.blogspot.it/2012/10/updated-data-for-comet-c2012-s1-ison.html

[Photosbykev]

it will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next 6 months, it could be a good one for SGL8

[Matt Scunthorpe]

It always amazes me how we find stuff like this so far out and so small

[stevetynant]

Its possible that this could turn out to be the astro event of all our lifetimes- a truly once in a lifetime event (equally it could be another huge disappointment I'm fully aware) - is there any update on the progression of Panstarrs yet - we are moving into a 6 month time frame with this comet so presumably much more reliable data should be available.

[andrew63]

We've been doing some analysis on it, here's the results

http://remanzacco.bl...12-s1-ison.html

Thanks for posting an update.

andrew

[Shibby]

it will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next 6 months, it could be a good one for SGL8

We might be too distracted by Pan-STARRS, which will possibly be a naked-eye comet at SGL8!

[Photosbykev]

We might be too distracted by Pan-STARRS, which will possibly be a naked-eye comet at SGL8!

and Asteroid 29 Amphitrite, a mag 9 target in March. PanStarrs might well be lost in the Hereford LP, hopefully not

[stevetynant]

Just thought of something, ison is predicted to be as much as magnitude minus 16, although obviously not the same size as the moon is this likely to wash the skies out for a short period of time? A price well worth paying if it comes off none the less.

[Boyleyuk]

Some info about the comet in the daily mail today,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2209293/Comet-brighter-moon-fly-Earth-2013.html

[Shibby]

Just thought of something, ison is predicted to be as much as magnitude minus 16, although obviously not the same size as the moon is this likely to wash the skies out for a short period of time? A price well worth paying if it comes off none the less.

It could me much larger than the moon... I suppose if it does indeed reach that brightness, then yes, it will wash the skies out! However, it'll be close to the Sun when at its brightest so should set soon afterwards (or rise just before).

[earth titan]

Some info about the comet in the daily mail today,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2209293/Comet-brighter-moon-fly-Earth-2013.html

Don't tell me! It's full of aliens all over here to steal our jobs and forced upon us by the EU!

Typed by me, using fumms...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Predicting the brightness of comets is notoriously difficult, as David Levy said: "Comets are like cats, they have tails, and they do precisely what they want."

I do hope this will be a really bright one, but I do not want to get my hopes up too high.