Bright New Comet Visible NOW!

i live on the west coast. where it was just after sunset when i atempted to search through the maze of trees and view the sky, but it didnt work. i'll try again from a different spot tomorrow

I shot the COMET earlier tonight at sunset. It was so bright!!!!

AAC

Nice one AAC.

You have a Sony too..an S90?

It must be pretty bright to get an image on a 1/10 second exposure.
Were you able to see any kind of tail at all?

Sweet, AAC !

Appears this thing is bigger and brighter than I imagined.

I might even have to hook up the 35mm to my scope for this one.

Looks like the bar is set, space' .

Hope I can still find my adapter.

If you write the word ....sadam...... on a peice of paper, and then hold it to a mirror, (make sure the word is in lowercase letters ) it reads Mabus clear as day.......

Kinda like in that Stephen King movie where the little kid writes REDRUM over and over and finally the mom SEE"S the word backwards and it is saying MURDER.......

Just now while reading the second post in this thread, did this occur to me, and it really gave me some creepy chills. SOMEBODY has got to have noticed this before me.........I mean come on

[edit on 8-1-2007 by theRiverGoddess]

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Nice one AAC.

You have a Sony too..an S90?

It must be pretty bright to get an image on a 1/10 second exposure.
Were you able to see any kind of tail at all?

Yeah, I believe with a better camera you could see more detail. I live on West coast BTW.

It looked more like an oblong (sp?) circle. Couldn't see a definitive tail. But it was bright and it screamed out of the sky, "look at me!" It was cool.

AAC

I know this might sound paranoid but....if a comet has no tail....dioesn't that mean its heading right for us?

[edit on 8-1-2007 by Alien_Gamer]

Originally posted by Alien_Gamer
I know this might sound paranoid but....if a comet has no tail....dioesn't that mean its heading right for us?

[edit on 8-1-2007 by Alien_Gamer]

I'd be lying if that didn't run through my mind.

AAC

You can clearly see the tail of this one on the picture, linked from the first page of this thread.

And the gas tail of comets point directly opposite the Sun.
(although, the dust/debris tail tends to follow the comets orbit, IIRC.)

The tail of dust is left behind in the comet's orbit in such a manner that it often forms a curved tail. At the same time, the ion tail, made of gases, always points directly away from the Sun, as this gas is more strongly affected by the solar wind than is dust, following magnetic field lines rather than an orbital trajectory

Wiki

Originally posted by FlyersFan
I SAW IT!


Okay guys ... I it's finally a crisp clear night and I can see it out of my second floor bedroom window. It's right where the space guys said it would be and it's BRIGHT.

I can see it without aid. It's a naked-eye comet. WOW!
No tail. But bright.

This must be what I saw tonight too.

I was driving west and the sun was just going down to my left.

I saw what looked like three or four little (very short) trails off of it and I thought, hmm, now there is a strange contrail. But then I noticed that those trails were not getting any longer and the object didn't seem to be moving much.

It was pretty bright.

Comet McNaught as seen from Akershus Fortress in Oslo, Monday afternoon (Norwegian time)



Photo: Mikkel Steine


Source (in norwegian...)

[edit on 2007/1/9 by Hellmutt]

Thanks for that nice pic Helmutt.

I just spent 45 minutes on the roof of a building watching, and waiting as the sun set. Venus was nice and bright.
We've got a temperature inversion, so the sky is somewhat murky..
I saw absolutely nothing..nada!

Dang it , space' -
I couldn't see it either, tonite.

Spotted Venus ok, but trees blocked most of the western sky,
to the North of her.

Must be too low in the sky, for my place.
SW is the worst view for me.
Not much of a 'window' for catching it either. Grrrr.

Well, here's a gallery of recent photos of McNaught, for the rest of
us 'viewing challenged'.

It looks so bright I can't believe I'm missing it.

Comet McNaught gallery

I'm still not seeing a tail here. That picture from Helmutt looks great ... tail and all. Must be the city lights killing the tail here ... BUT IT'S BRIGHT!

Oh sure, FlyersFan, rub it in.

Picture #10 from above link , is pretty awesome!

Found my camera/scope adapter, now if only I could
find McNaught.

Hmmm...I smell a road trip, brewin'.

I'll be taking a break from work.
Going home to some clearer skies..

We'll see what happens..
Not many more chances to see it.!

Update:
Drove home, got stuck in traffic..But was able to see it out of my Truck window, for most of the way home..It had set, by the time I got there.

FF is right, the thing is VERY BRIGHT..It looked like a tiny little cloud, all by itself in the sky.

[edit on 10-1-2007 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by Jbird
I smell a road trip, brewin'.

I highly recommend it. If you have to, drive out away from city lights and get yourself up high so you can see the horizen. You'll be glad you did!

Originally posted by spacedoubt
FF is right,

ahhhhhhhhh... let me savour the moment. I don't hear that too often on this site! FF is right .... music to my ears!

spaceweather.com...
Space Weather Article and pictures.

BRIGHTEST comet in 30 years they say!!

[edit on 1/11/2007 by FlyersFan]

Hey all,

I though this would be worth while adding to the thread.

It's the orbital trajectory of Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught)..





If you want to see the comet through other dates then go here...

Comet C/2006 P1 - Comet McNaught

Anyway,

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 11-1-2007 by Neon Haze]

Is it too late to view this? Sadly, I have just heard of this and it's the 11th. How long can it be viewed?

[edit on 1/11/2007 by Griff]