Comet

[Vince1963]

Wow... Driving home from my night shift saw this object in the night sky, Couldn't believe my eyes. I thought that cant be the great cluster in Hercules, it's never that bright.. Had to come on here to see if anyone else had seen it. Soon as i got through the door i went straight for my bins.. I couldn't believe my eyes so majestic and brilliant.. I'm so happy         

[Vince1963]

Just a thought.. This comet is heading towards the sun at a colossal speed, where's it heading on the way out? is it going to be a close fly by on the way out... or will it carry on its journey out into the cosmos.

[Pete Presland]

Made for an interesting couple of hours

[laser_jock99]

What comet is this then?

Nothing particularly bright around at the moment:

http://in-the-sky.org/comets.php

EDIT: Lovejoy might be a nice binocular object in January - but it's the only one I can find

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/binocular-comet-lovejoy-heading-c2014-q2-lovejoy-1211142/

[Pete Presland]

Unfortunately a false alarm, it was some sort of rocket dump. Great to see though!

[Luke]

What a shame, I really thought it must be a comet, not because I know much about comets, but because I couldn't think what else it could be!

Still, what a great bit of fun in the early hours!

I am just hoping it's gonna be clear for Sol! Quite nice early on this morning on the moon, wish I could have got the barlow out but Comet Rocket Fuel Dump distracted me a bit!

[Pete Presland]

It was of those great moments where anybody who saw it thought, WOW what is that! I pointed the dslr at it for a couple of frames just in case.

[Vince1963]

I did a bit of research' And i thought i could have been 2014UV210 But i haven't crunched the figures. And at  7.2 Lunar Distance i thought it could be good. Oh well that was a great show

[stewartw]

hi All,

It was the fuel dump from the Centaur booster that launched NROL-35 from Vandenburg AFB earlier this morning ... details and pictures at http://britastro.org/node/5886

Best regards

William

[Kai]

That wil be it then , still it had 5 Posties standing around at 5:15am discussing it

[Pete Presland]

it made think me of what the the magellanic clouds might look like!

[laser_jock99]

Unfortunately a false alarm, it was some sort of rocket dump. Great to see though!

Cool!

[cotterless45]

Just a wonderful thing to observe , from a fuzzy ball rising over the roof tops to a bright cone,

Nick.

[Qualia]

Gorgeous sketch, Nick and thank you for sharing this one with us. Spectacular stuff! Must have been one hell of a fright and experience to see that soaring across the heavens

[LukeSkywatcher]

From the sketch, i can see why anyone would think it was a comet (including myself). 

[Jim Steele]

There is another post in the Widefield and Comets section, including a few videos.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/231537-huge-naked-eye-tail/#entry2504501