not sure what type of Comet I spotted last weekend can you help?

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Hi all being a relatively new to the hobby(when does a newbie stop being a newbie?)most stargazing at the mo is done with my bins as they are quite handy for maneuvering in between trees when needed!

As the case was about last week i think not Friday there but one past that 29th probably any hoo been trying to research it on the web but i'm not 100% in what it is yet.

The direction it was traveling was roughly from the East sky(the constellation near it at first spotting was Hercules) to the North or maybe the North East sky.

When viewing with bins it's notable how very fast it was traveling, as it is easy to occasionally look up and see it flying through space in the corners of eye (you can even notice it vividly flying through space with your eye's alone as it's tumbling along it's merry way) you know not fully looking at it as you see it moving more that way i finde. I think you call it Inverted viewing.

Sadly I was not able to notice any kind of white tale from it or the other comet thats heading South doing the round's but in the bins you can notice a nice red glowing tail. Fair to say I am now hooked on comets and am calling myself a comet hunter!

Is it down to light pollution that i'm not seeing any tail or is it more lightly the position i'm viewing the comet from?

That night I also spotted my first satellite as well! Last Nov I thought I spotted a satellite but it was falling down to earth and seemed to glow very bright with a tail and then vanish in a matter of seconds whilst trying to find triangulum at the time!

Regards,

Mr Gazza.

[Andy_E]

I think you might have got things a little mixed up here. the first object you describe sounds like a satellite, and the second a meteorite. Comets will appear stationary in the sky, but it's hard to be precise about what you saw. The only comet (realistically) visible from our skies at the moment is C/2011 L4 panstarrs... it should be visible near casseopeia for the next few days.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Agreed, satellite and meteor, respectively

[LukeSkywatcher]

In agreement also with the others.

[Andy_E]

If you fancy a bit of comet hunting, you couldn't have picked a better year to start! As mentioned, C/2011 L4 is still visible in our skies, and later in the year comet C/2012 S1 ISON is promising (never trust a comet's promise!) to be a spectacular sight towards the end of the year. Eyes to the skies and you could bag yourself a couple of crackers!