Ison for newbies

[dabiscuit]

Hello all.

Ison has been hailed as "the best comet for a century". Not my words, impressionist John Culshaw apparently (very keen astronomer).

I am a relative newbie to comet spotting/watching. I understand that December 2nd and 3rd will be best days to see Ison should it survive its passing of the sun. Can anyone confirm where it will be in the sky and what time? I can't remember what star was best to look for as a reference point, but heard it would be in the South East skies.

Thanks all.

[nephilim]

It will be low in the eastern sky at around dawn for the best views.

[Beardy Bob]

I think this sums it up pretty well. It was posted this morning so it's pretty up-to-date too:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25129711

[Stu]

Yes, that's a good link with useful info.

Here is a little more detail by way of screen shots from SkySafari which may be useful. The run through from 1st to 5th December at around 7am, I would suggest looking from before 6am though. I guess it really does depend how bright and long the tail is, if it is good them perhaps it will be visible from 30th or 1st, if not then maybe won't be very clear until 3rd to 5th. My birthday on 5th so I'm hoping for a nice birthday treat :-)

Hope that is of some help. Fingers crossed it survives and we get some clear skies.

Cheers,

Stu

[Stu]

Slightly more useful one includes the direction!

Stu

[barkis]

Starry Night Screen Grab looking east on the morning of December 05 at 06:30am.

Not sure how this will pan out. If it survives the forces it will have to endure, the tail may well be spectacular, but we just have to 

wait and see.

Ron.

[mjpfc]

Soho it showing an extremely long tail just now (faint on Lasco C3) but it goes close in the next 4-6 hours so we may know more by mid-evening I suppose.

Mick.