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PanSTARRS

Pig

By Pig
in The Astro Lounge

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Pig

Pig

Posted
Posted

Bit of a dunce question here im afraid :Envy:

If the comet is moving at a very high speed in comparrison to the speed the earth rotates how does it get higher from the horizon as time goes by?

In all the graphics i have seen comet appears to be moving toward the horizion.

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BinocularSky

BinocularSky

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In all the graphics i have seen comet appears to be moving toward the horizion.
If by that, you mean that the tails are higher above the horizon than is the nucleus, that may be the source of your confusion. The tails point approximately away from the Sun.

On the batphone, so expect typos...

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gkec

gkec

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This image shows what is happening.

http://blog.aschnabel.bplaced.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Panstarrs_orbit-485x485.jpg

Blue is Earth. The red dot is the position of the comet now (I think the image updates automatically). The red line is where the comet's orbit is below the orbital plane, i.e. to the south, and the green line above (to the North).

As you can seen it is not particularly close to Earth and we are seeing it to the West of the Sun. It has approached the Sun from below the orbital plane and then curved upwards from under the orbital plane to cross the oribital plane inside the orbit of Mercury travelling northwards. So far has been below the horizon from the UK's (and other northern hemisphere countries) giving the Australians etc a good view of it. From our point of view as it is travelling upwards (Northerly) it will rise higher and higher above the horizon.

Some spotter charts released from NASA show a more horizontal movement. That is because the charts are for locations nearer the equator and thus show a sort of side on view.

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Pig

Pig

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Thank you gkec makes more sense to me now.

You can download the ephemerides easily from within Stellarium now. Takes a second and gives you a fairly reliable trajectory.

I will try that badgerchap - not too sure how its done but I will give it a go - cheers for the help guys :laugh:

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Pig

Pig

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Only another 999 thousand years & 330 or so days until it comes by again :smiley:

Mind you we may have sussed quantum mechs/ physics by then and will be able to go and see it, cloudy or not.

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