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Comet McNaught Visible in Broad Daylight

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:39 AM
from the so's-yer-mom dept.
Space
AbsoluteXyro writes "As the amateur astronomers among us already know, Comet McNaught has been gracing the early morning and late evening skies... as it approaches the Sun, some estimate it has the potential to become 40 times brighter than Venus, or a magnitude of -8.8! In fact, it has recently been reported at SpaceWeather.com that Comet McNaught is now visible in broad daylight! From the article: "It's fantastic," reports Wayne Winch of Bishop, California. "I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can even see the tail.""
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  • seriously, how long will it be in that general area of the sky at that time? DC's got rain and clouds for at least the next 2 days...

    • Too late - get south of the equator... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Animaether (411575) on Sunday January 14 2007, @12:17PM (#17603458) Journal
      http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5133461 .html [skytonight.com]

      "If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, January 12th is your last good opportunity to catch Comet McNaught in the evening twilight -- though January 13th isn't completely out of the question. After that, Comet McNaught will become a target for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, as shown below."

      Today is January 14th.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        In completely unrelated news, George W. Bush decided to hastily invade Urugay. When asked to give official statement, he replied "The star up there! I didn't see it! I want to see it too!!! THE STAR UP THERE!!!", slightly incoherently.

        Citizens of Urugay are united as they blame the occupation of their homeland by US forces on Slashdot for late post.

          -- Yet another anonymous coward. Bugger.
      • I think that is only if you want to see the comet at night. During the day, you can watch it from both hemispheres.

      • Re:Too late - get south of the equator... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Mard (614649) on Sunday January 14 2007, @01:31PM (#17604208)
        The comet is visible in DAYLIGHT from any hemisphere, because the sun is visible FROM BOTH HALVES OF THE EARTH. C'mon, this is basic geometry. Go outside, block the sun with the shadow from a building, and look about 5 degrees (a fist's width at arm's length) to the east of the Sun (northern hemisphere, this is to your left when looking towards the sun). If the sun is clear, you should see it in a moment or two.

        • look about 5 degrees (a fist's width at arm's length) to the east of the Sun

          I always used a fist's width at arm's length to approximate 10 degrees. I'm not sure where I got it from, but it seems reasonably close to accurate when my thumb is on top. Unless by "width" you mean palm-side to back-side (which would make sense) in which case that's probably about right... forget I said anything.
      • Actually they're surprised that the comet is so visible in daylight and visible when it's so close to the sun.

    • I think you won't see much more of it anymore, until it emerges from behind the sun.

      In the Southern Hemisphere it will be visible in the following week or so. It is raining right now here in the Kingdom of the Zulu, and the weather service expects the rain to persist for the whole of next week. We don't complain about rain here in Africa (except when there are floods of course) but this is inconvenient.

      I was seven years old in 1986, and I was really excited to see Halley's comet. The night that the come

  • Put the Sun (Score:5, Funny)

    by blantonl (784786) on Sunday January 14 2007, @11:42AM (#17603158) Homepage
    "I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can even see the tail."

    He moved the sun. Impressive.

  • This may sound obvious, but DO NOT use binoculars during the day to look at objects near the sun. One slip and you get instant, permanent, crippling eye damage.

    The linked stories do talk about binoculars, but they were written for looking at the comet after sunset.

    • PL ea ese m od parre nt up 1! I f on ly i h ad re ad thiis e a rrleier ,

    • Re:BINOCULARS WARNING - don't use in daytime (Score:5, Funny)

      by Tx (96709) on Sunday January 14 2007, @11:50AM (#17603224) Journal
      Warning on telescope - "Do not view the sun with remaining eye".

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kitzilla (266382)
      Amen. I believe this comet is now about 4 degrees from the sun -- too close for me to see it today. The sky that close is far too bright to safely use binoculars under most cloud conditions. Don't do it, no matter what yesterday's SpaceWeather article says.
    • I've seen the comet during the day both yesterday and today. You need binoculars to find it easily- although once you see it, it's obvious- or to see the tail. While I wouldn't let children see me trying this at home, positioning myself in the roof's shadow makes it safe enough to do.

      Sure, it is a bit weird pointing the binoculars in that general direction (weird like walking on the glass floor of the CN tower 1000 feet up- some major part of your brain is screaming at you that this ought not be done). But

      • I can even post to Slashdot right after. Although why Slashdot changed their color scheme to "big green blob in the middle of the page" I don't know.

        That's why we said not to look at it with binoculars today.... See what you get for not listening?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fifedrum (611338)
      amen to that, my amateur astronomer brother, who built a shed-sized observatory in the backyard, decided to look at sun spots one day, and just as his eye approached the lens, he reared back in pain.

      He forgot the filter, and had a nice burn on the hollow of his cheek right below his eyeball, it was shaped like this: |

      very lucky to get away with just a nasty burn on thin skin

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Fred_A (10934)
        Are you crazy ? All it would have taken is for someone to move the sun behind your side of the wall and you would have been instantly blinded !
  • I was just leaving the house and I saw that there was a lunar eclipse. Then I turned the other direction and there was Hale-Bopp, a weird white smudge low on the horizon. That was so freaking cool. It stuck around for quite some time.

  • Got a picture! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Karellen !-P (717831) on Sunday January 14 2007, @12:14PM (#17603428) Homepage
    I was able to take a pretty crappy shot [digitalapoptosis.com] of her yesterday at dusk. Unfortunately I didn't hear about that comet until it was too low on the horizon to get anything decent...or to get my hands on a decent zoom lense.
  • So someone if finally making sequel to "Night of the Comet" [amazon.com]. Awesome! :P
  • I'd like to take my kids out tonight, this sounds like a good excuse to drive north of the city.

    Will I still be able to see it, or will it be below the horizon? Any viewing tips?

    I live in south-eastern Ontario, Canada (near ll=44.5,-76.7).

    I used to have a computer program that told me about this stuff, and where to look... but, alas, it ran on my C-64 and probably doesn't know about this chunk of ice anyhow. :)
    • I'd like to take my kids out tonight, this sounds like a good excuse to drive north of the city.

      Will I still be able to see it, or will it be below the horizon? Any viewing tips?
      Apparently, according to the article you're supposed to drive south instead.

      You may have to refuel a couple times.
      And bring food.
  • I predict all these post will come to nought.
  • Just thinking, are there any Nike wearing weirdos out there looking to hitch a ride this time around?

    • On the theory that anything that cleans up the gene pool is, by definition, A Good Thing, we can only hope. Plus, if there's another Heaven's Gate event, we get to see puff pieces in most media, as all the sensitive types act as if nutjobs leaving the planet (suicide still gets them off the planet) were somehow A Bad Thing. We should get at least a Geraldo Rivera special out of it.

      "So sad."
      "A tragedy."
      and the immortal
      "Think of the children."

      Yeah, some relatives, SOs, and such would suffer. Sorry about that.

  • Any photos? (Score:3, Funny)

    by slughead (592713) on Sunday January 14 2007, @12:36PM (#17603622) Homepage Journal
    I don't want to go outside.

  • It's too bad no one predicted this one (Score:5, Insightful)

    by freeweed (309734) on Sunday January 14 2007, @12:52PM (#17603788)
    Every few years, it seems, we've had another comet that was supposed to be "best comet of the century!!!", and all my life, they've been fizzling. A couple have been OK, but there's been a dearth of really bright, visible comets since before I was born.

    This sucker, I wish someone would have hyped the hell out of. IT IS THAT BRIGHT. The problem is, hardly anyone (including Slashdot) was reporting on it until it was damn near gone. There were about 2-4 nights where it was incredibly bright, brighter than Venus, and visible just at sunset for about half an hour or so. VERY close to the horizon but for the first time in my life, light pollution meant nothing. I was able to see this thing while driving around, so long as I had a clear view of the horizon to the west. Most comets you have to hunt for, use binoculars, maps, you name it. This thing had a very long tail, just sitting there in plain view.

    It's been the best comet of the past 3 decades at least. Unfortunately the vast majority of the planet missed out, as these reports have all come after the fact. Plus, it's now barely visible for those in the northern hemisphere.

    I'm gonna try this daytime trick out, because if it's like the sunset viewing conditions, it will be 10x as cool as is described here.
    • In the war between fancy new products and astronomy, the fancy new products always win. Only 7 days after the prime observing time, thousands of iPhone headlines, 24 hour Steve Jobless coverage, and Pirates of Silicon Valley marathons, did a small blurb appear about the brightest comet in 10 years having come and gone.

      Amazing how with the most advanced communication technology and the ability for everyone to know everything, we are still victims of the most basic human desire to idolize the few strong lead
    • Its probably because 90% of the people who post/track articles are on holidays and only basic staff are on hand.

      http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Comet_McNaught_M akes_For_Stellar_A_First_Light_Present_For_STEREO_ Telescope_999.html [spacedaily.com]

      Jan 15!!!

      We still have time to see it though, but yeah, could have been earlier, curse you space websites/magazines.

    • For a couple of days I saw some people who had stopped at the side of the road to view it during my commute. Sadly I didn't stop to see what they were looking at, and by the time I found out it was a day too late. At least the people in the Southern Hemisphere have advance warning.

      But then again, it's just a light in the sky. I'll get over it :)

      • I saw them more than a hundred kilometres from any city lights. They were OK compared to Halley in 1985, but that's about it. By saying they were "really, really impressive", we're just showing how young we BOTH are. They were impressive compared to the complete and utter lack of truly impressive comets that have come around before we were born. There hasn't been a daylight comet in decades until this one.

        Seriously, I live in a city of a million people, and was able to see it when the sky was still red from
  • I know who to blame for things like this: George Bush.

    First he caused that hurricane, now this comet. Bill Clinton never caused any major natural disasters or evil omens.
  • I can confirm this: I just saw the comet at 10:30 a.m. local time Sunday morning! Incredible. In all my years as an astronomer I have never seen anything like this. Using my binoculars I could easily spot it 5 degrees from the Sun. I'm trying to get video now, but it's so close it will be difficult. I made a videoblog about this [badastronomy.com] the other day. I'll have to update it now!
  • we've had a week straight of cloud cover. Lights in the sky would only make the local bible-thumpers nervous anyway (Kansas).
  • Tried looking for it today in the Orange County, CA area. Despite the air being unusually clear (as it has been for the last few weeks), I just could not spot the comet. Chalk it up to being close to sea level and in the suburbs, I guess.

    Oh, well, I was at least able to see it at sunset [hyperborea.org] the last two nights.
  • I took a few photos from my house in Oakland -

    http://meems.imeem.com/iQrVatKB/photo/blSLxv2H/1lA W_FAX99Dry/ [imeem.com]

    I'd managed to grab a few shots at sunset, but I wanted a shot with both the sun and the comet in frame - so I held my sun filter out as far away from the camera as I could manage, it dimmed the solar disc but left it visible, a wee bit of adjustment to the luminance curves was needed to bring out the comet at the top left of the shot. Sorry it's kind of small, I just used the stock 55mm lens on my ca
  • Originally they said it would be very faint. It wasn't until 7 days after the prime observing time that the news managed to cut through the iPhone noise, but by then it was too late.

    It was invisible to the naked eye on Saturday. Only after greatly amplifying the frames in software did the comet emerge. It probably won't be visible after Sunday.

    Threw some photos of the comet on http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=115141 [rcgroups.com]

    and made a movie of it right until it was 50 pixels above the horizon. The mo
  • http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1.htm [anu.edu.au]

    This site has a lot of info and viewing directions.

    Basically...

    By Jan 16, the effect of forward scattering will have dropped back to about zero and the comet will already be heading away from the Sun and Earth; back to the obscurity of the Oort cloud. Although now clearly fading, it will be moving higher into the southern sky away from the sun. At sunset on the 16th, the comet will be about 10 degrees from the sun and just left of directly above the Sun at sunset. It
      • But my question is what do you think is going to happen when it hits the sun?

        A similar sort of thing as to when a Mosquito hits the windshield of a Semi. The Semi's not going to notice, but it's going to be a really bad day for the Mosquito.
      • I don't know if you are joking, but it isn't going to hit the sun. It orbits the sun. From our point of view on earth, it will disappear behind the sun, then re-appear on the other side of the sun.

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