Thursday 14 March 2013

That Comet

Several of us were out last night driving around the peninsula to find ideal positions to see comet PANSTARRS.  The new moon - finally - appeared, and was very pretty, but the comet was nowhere to be seen.

For anyone who still has the stamina to try to find the comet tonight, or would like to see what they should have seen last night, EarthSky has an article and pictures here.  The Diary has reached the point where it hopes tonight's sky will be cloudy.

4 comments:

  1. I was out last night in East Yorkshire, found the moon but no sign of the comet - there didn't appear to be cloud around to obscure it. Hope the one later in the year is better!

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  2. I was out on the 13th looking from Oxford, couldn't see anything but took a few general pictures (with exposures of a few seconds) of the sunset/darkening skies which the comet did show up on - albeit pretty faintly, I only found it when I put the pictures on my big telly!

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  3. Well done! I tried the same, on the same night, and tried to enhance the pictures in iPhoto - without luck. Or perhaps my screen just isn't big enough.

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  4. I managed to see the comet with the naked eye two nights ago from above the Hope Valley in Derbyshire. Reference to a star map such as on SpaceWeather.com remains essential though. There is currently a huge solar storm, but tilted towards the US. If it were tilted towards us there'd be auroras overhead as far as Lands End. The Auroral oval will shift. Eyes peeled if cloud permits tonight. Activity lasts until the 20th.

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