Moon Bright Plus Comet.

[barkis]

This on Yahoo News this morning.

I've placed it here, to give it a wider audience.

Ron.

"NASA's Deep Impact space probe has captured video of a comet which could outshine the moon when it passes through the inner solar system this autumn.

The three-kilometer-wide comet was discovered by two Russian astronomers last September.

NASA astronomers have plotted its orbit, and say its likely the object has never visited the inner solar system before.

That means it's more likely that the comet's surface will produce a bright 'tail' of gas and duSt in the radiation from the sun.

"If it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history," Raminder Singh Samra of the H R MacMillan Space Centre in Canada said when the comet was first seen.

The images were taken by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Imager over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013, from a distance of 493 million miles."

[John]

Thanks Ron.

"could outshine the moon" - wow !

[barkis]

Thanks Ron.

"could outshine the moon" - wow !

I have a little trepidation though John.

I remember one of Halleys returns was hailed as such too, but what a damp squib it turned out to be in the end.

Although I believe a more positive outcome is likely with this event. (Fingers crossed ) .

[Dave]

The speculation is all part of the fun.

[Shibby]

We're talking about ISON, right?

[barkis]

We're talking about ISON, right?

Yep, that's the baby. Do you have more Info. on it. Lewis?

[CJE]

Fingers crossed, could be spectacular.

[m12_shakes]

Yep, that's the baby. Do you have more Info. on it. Lewis?

http://www.space.com/19656-comet-ison-nasa-spacecraft-photos.html

It's got the potential to be pretty awesome.

Regards,

m12

[Parus major]

All the youtube Doomsday nutters are having a field day with Ison. Still, it makes a change from thinking they see phantom planets with their iphone cameras pointed at the sun.

[Shibby]

Yep, that's the baby. Do you have more Info. on it. Lewis?

Sorry, just wan't sure if you were alerting us to another comet of the century! (Hadn't noticed ISON on the images at first)

I found these visual predictions handy/interesting (albeit far from guaranteed accurate):

http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/november-2013/

http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/december-2013/

http://www.eagleseye.me.uk/Sky/Wordpress/?p=1922

I also took an early (very poor!) image of ISON the other day:

Very excited about ISON, but also looking forward to PanSTARRS for some comet practise