SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24
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Subject: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:44 am
SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24
Published on Dec 23, 2014
SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 - EYES ON THE SKIES
BURSTING COMET TO PASS BY MARS: Last week, faint Comet 15P/Finlay exploded in brightness. You still can't see it with the naked eye, but the comet's surge from magnitude +11 to +8.7 suddenly makes it an attractive target for small 'scope or large binosulars.
Consider this perfect timing: The outburst occurred just as the comet is passing by Mars. On Dec. 23rd and 24th, 15P/Finlay will be 1/6th of a degree from the Red Planet. Astrophotographers interested in a photo-op can find the pair in he southwestern sky just after sunset. http://spaceweather.com/
Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst, Visible in Small Telescopes http://www.universetoday.com/117449/c...
Comet Finlay is in outburst! http://earthsky.org/space/comet-finla...
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Subject: DOUBLE CHRISTMAS COMETS Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:34 pm
DOUBLE CHRISTMAS COMETS
Published on Dec 23, 2014
LOVEJOY AND FINLAY BOTH ARE BRIGHTENING UNEXPECTEDLY. SOLAR AND QUAKE LINKS @ http://www.BPEarthWatch.Com http://spaceweathergallery.com/
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Posts : 14432 Reputation : 955 Join date : 2011-08-13 Age : 71 Location : San Diego
Subject: Re: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:07 pm
Quote :
large binosulars
. . . . hehehe, I got a pair of those! All funning aside, I have clear skies this evening so I'm going to take my large binosulars out back to see what I can see.
researcher Admin
Posts : 14432 Reputation : 955 Join date : 2011-08-13 Age : 71 Location : San Diego
Subject: Re: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 Thu Dec 25, 2014 2:00 pm
Well, it's the 25th and not only didn't I see any comets I couldn't even locate Mars. I can usually find Mars in the night sky, at least most of the time, but I think the city lights washed out the sky a tad too much. Such is life. Heck, I can't even see the Milky Way unless I drive 80 miles East over the mountains and into the desert.
!! FOXTROT JULIETBRAVO !!
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Subject: Re: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:03 pm
Beautiful night sky north of you... I'd haul the telescope out but too cold... will fog up without a tube heater and I haven't one. Though winter is great viewing it is COLD out here.
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Subject: Lovejoy comet glows green in evening sky Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:19 pm
Lovejoy comet glows green in evening sky Posted 1:28 p.m. yesterday
By Tony Rice
A rare cometary visitor is making its way through the inner solar system, and you can see it with a small telescope, decent binoculars or even the naked eye under dark conditions.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy has brightened significantly since it was discovered in August. The coma, which is the atmosphere surrounding the icy nucleus, has grown and its tail has extended to about 229,000 miles (369,000 kilometers) as it nears its closest encounter with the sun at the end of January.
Comet Q2 is a very long-period comet that last passed through about 11,500 years ago. This visit will alter its path sufficiently to reduce that orbital period to about 8,000 years.
Amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy found the comet from his Thornlands, Queensland, Australia home, his fifth cometary discovery. The comet was about 4,000 times dimmer when he discovered it just before dawn on August 17, 2014.
Lovejoy is well known among comet hunters for his techniques in modifying digital cameras to record the infrared light needed to detect deep space objects.
Comet Q2 rises above the treetops by about 7 p.m. in the constellation Lepus. The easiest way to find it is to wait until after 10 p.m. when Q2 is higher in the sky and the much brighter star Sirius has risen sufficiently to guide you. The comet will appear as a fuzzy white puffball through a small telescope or binoculars, though long-exposure photographs have revealed the coma to have a greenish glow coming from diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight.
Look to the southeast for the constellation Orion and its belt of three stars topped by orangey Betelgeuse. Look for the star Rigel in Orion’s right foot and beneath for the bright star Sirius. Rigel, Sirius and the comet form a right triangle midweek.
The comet will appear a bit higher until Jan. 7, when Sirius, Rigel and the comet appear in an roughly equally spaced line.
Look for a break from these overcast conditions late tonight with partly cloudy conditions Wednesday and Thursday nights. Clouds are expected to return over the weekend, but the comet is expected to brighten through its closest approach to Earth on Jan. 7.
Though next week may offer even better viewing of Comet Lovejoy, don’t wait too long for your first view. As astronomer David H. Levy points out “Comets are like cats: They have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
Tony Rice is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program and software engineer at Cisco Systems. You can follow him on Twitter @rtphokie.
Read more at http://www.wral.com/lovejoy-comet-glows-green-in-evening-sky/14317944/#D3iDK8Vt751IWxRs.99
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Subject: New Years Comet: Glowing Green 'Comet Lovejoy' Becomes Visible to the Unaided Eye! Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:59 am
New Years Comet: Glowing Green 'Comet Lovejoy' Becomes Visible to the Unaided Eye!
Published on Dec 31, 2014
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com
The new Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2, is finally in good view for us northerners. And it's brighter than originally expected. As of December 31th it's about magnitude 5.0, but the light of the waxing gibbous Moon filling the sky is making it harder to see. Even so, you can detect it in binoculars if you use the finder charts at the bottom of this page to pinpoint its precise spot among the stars. If the comet acts as expected from here on, it should reach about magnitude 4.1 at its brightest in the middle two weeks of January — when the Moon will be gone.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astron...
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Subject: Comet Lovejoy:The Show Has Just Begun - An Awe Inspiring Visitor from Deep Space Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:04 am
Comet Lovejoy:The Show Has Just Begun - An Awe Inspiring Visitor from Deep Space
Published on Jan 1, 2015
Comet Lovejoy:The Show Has Just Begun - An Awe Inspiring Visitor from Deep Space Over Our Skies
Comet Lovejoy is now a naked eye object, the show has just begun
GREEN COMET IN BRIGHT MOONLIGHT: The visibility of Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) continues to improve. Currently shining at magnitude +5.0 underneath the feet of Orion, it is expected to more than double in brightness by mid-January 2015. This puts it just above the threshold for naked-eye visibility and allows photographers to record the comet using only a camera--no telescope required.
Comet Lovejoy has a marvelous pallette. The sinuous blue ion tail both contrasts and compliments the comet's puffy green atmosphere. These colors come from ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) and diatomic carbon (C2), which glow blue and green, respectively, in the near-vacuum of interplanetary space.
it will brighten to magnitude 4.5 or even 4.0 in the first week of 2015,
Observers should look for the comet passing through the constellation Lepus the Hare south of Orion. Consult these finder charts from Sky & Telescope. http://tinyurl.com/khp2bah
Subject: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Comet Finlay in Bright Outburst to PASS by MARS on Dec. 23-24 
Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:44 am
. . . . hehehe, I got a pair of those! All funning aside, I have clear skies this evening so I'm going to take my large binosulars out back to see what I can see.
