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ISON not looking good

BinocularSky

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

Posted
Posted

Any comet that is visible is worth a look. Ive not really had any luck with comets in the past. Hale-Bopp obviously was fantastic with just the naked eye. I just managed to see Holmes with bins before it vanished. I had no luck with PANSTARRS. Hopefully ISON will be pretty good,because it was expected to be brilliant. So less then brilliant is still worth waiting for.

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Superdavo

Superdavo

Posted
Posted

I hope ISON is a good one, but I don't see it being as incredible as they say - If I had to guess I'd put it as being better than panstarrs, but not as bright as the full Moon, but you never know

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DaveGarland

DaveGarland

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Posted

Looking on Sky Safari, on Nov 19 at 6.30am Ison will be not far from Spica AND comet 2P/Encke will be near Mercury! Sky Safari has Encke at a visual mag of 4.6! Is this likely to come out on a camera shot or be visible with binoculars? What a shot that would be.

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Dave

Dave

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Encke and Mercury will be extremely low in the sky at that time.

Twilight will be interfering somewhat.

But hey! I'm going to give it a go.

Provided we get some clear skies, of course.

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stevetynant

stevetynant

Posted
Posted

Still in the balance, comets are hugely unpredictable but within the next month or so we should have a much clearer picture of what to expect. For the record I really enjoyed pan starrs, anything bigger or brighter would be fantastic. Just trying not to get my hopes up too high but I feel we are approaching tipping point very shortly. Decent article below may be of interest.

http://www.space.com/22176-comet-ison-skywatching-august.html

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

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Lorne

Lorne

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I think a lot of it will be down to sky quality, my experience of Panstarrs back in March was mixed, from my mildly LP garden it was a bins/ scope object, whilst at my inlaws in Caithness it was plain to see naked eye. Nothing I have seen can compare to Hale Bopp as Paul mentioned above, here's hoping Ison will put on a similar show.

L.

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SnakeyJ

SnakeyJ

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Nice to see the experts can disagree so politely in public, but expect the private debate got rather more heated and certainly above the frost line ;)

I didn't see Panstarrs directly, but some excellent images here and a truely impressive long tail - lets hope that Ison survives perihelion and puts on a show for us!

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HurricaneWhisperer

HurricaneWhisperer

Posted
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Stellarium would have me believe it's better the more south you are.

I came to the same conclusion using Sky Tools 3. I compared the height (altitude) of the comet in the sky on a couple of given days in November and December of this year at various latitudes between 47 and 29 degrees North and I found the comet would be hightest in the sky for the lower latitudes.

I don't know if this methodology is valid though.

I also didn't check latitudes further south, or at the equator or in southern hemisphere. I got bored messing with the program and latitudes and dates. I am curious if anyone else explored possible viewing sites as a function of latitude.

After a 10 to 11 hour drive, including legal speeds up to 80 to 85 mph, I can reach some elevations in Big Bend Country with good views at about 3000 to 4000 feet elevation. The skies there are some of the darkest skies in the continental United States and are the darkest availble withing at least 5 degrees of the 29 degree latitude.

I plan on heading there for viewing.

Sky Tools was vague on other predictions but local rumor has it that the singing coyotes of Big Bend will have a glee club competition from the various mountain tops at that time.

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JB80

JB80

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I don't think this one will be much chop in the southern hemisphere, maybe at more northern latitudes but it's more of a northern hemisphere comet which is nice for once as the southerners have had a good run with comets over the last few years.

If it turns out to be a good one and not fizzle out I think I'll just scoot around the local area within an hours drive or so and see what I can come up with.

There are bound to be some lookout points and interesting local landmarks to frame the shot with.

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