Comet Swan Is Visible To the Naked Eye and Passing By Earth Tonight (cnet.com) 27
Comet Swan could deliver on the promise of a rare night sky show that Comet Atlas failed to provide. "Already, Swan could be visible to those with exquisitely dark skies and sharp eyes," reports CNET. "Others might also be able to spot it with binoculars." From the report: Astronomer Con Stoitsis said some predictions show the comet continuing to brighten in the coming days. "It should be an 'obvious' naked eye target in mid-May," he said on Twitter. The comet makes its closest pass by Earth on May 13 and comes nearest to the sun on May 27. There're a number of tools online -- TheSkyLive is a great place to start -- to help you find Comet Swan in the night sky. And, of course, the comet also has a Twitter account worth following.
Will this one at least be more accurate? (Score:2)
The Chinese were close, but still off by an ocean. Maybe this comet can land on NYC properly.
Re: Will this one at least be more accurate? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
That absolutely depends on the size of the comet. I just used the fascinating "Impact Earth!" app from Perdue ( https://www.purdue.edu/impacte... [purdue.edu] ) to calculate the impact of a 1 kilometer diameter icy comet travelling at 25 kilometers per second and impacting at a 45 degree angle onto dry land. New York would be absolutely obliterated, with a crater five miles wide and two deep. But 1000km away, you'd get negligible ejecta impacting, mostly dust, arriving in 8 minutes. The seismic shock would be a 7.7 loca
Re: (Score:2)
The app does give a figure for ejecta, though: 2.5 cubic kilometres, which puts it at slightly over 5 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index [wikipedia.org]. Bigger that Mt St Helen's, but smaller than Pinatubo. So maybe not as severe as, say, the Year Without A Summer, even.
Will it spread COVID-19 ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally, some news about a COMET, not COVID.
Given that 5G towers are spreading the COVID-19 virus (as confirmed by the will of the mob here in the UK), how is it possible that such an un-auspicious event like a comet will not spread said virus more ?
And that cyanogen in the comet's tail is certain to poison us all.
Other headlines:
British tabloid journalists depressed by the lack of gloomy news
Re: (Score:3)
It isn't coming closer tho Earth than it is right now; 80+ MILLION miles.
Re: (Score:1)
(nudges the comet in the right direction to hit NYC)
Done
Re: (Score:3)
Username checks out.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You do not understand dilution.
It isn't how far away it is, but how far away it couldn't be; rather, how far away it is, but wasn't. Each orbit, as it gets further away it gets stronger. That's dilution. It doesn't help for it to merely be far away; it has to move away. That is when it gets stronger; during dilution.
Re: (Score:2)
British tabloid journalists depressed by the lack of gloomy news
They'll have plenty when COVID-19 is over and the country realises that the virus didn't erase them screwing themselves.
Passing By Tonight? (Score:2)
"Passing By" at a distance of 80+ MILLION miles. That's an out of the park _MISS_.
Re: (Score:2)
If your misses go out of the park, it's time to fire the catcher.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't seem very visible (Score:5, Informative)
It's a 5.5 magnitude object that's 20 degrees from the sun, and it's only getting closer.
You'll need a low horizon towards the East, then kinda have to get up at like 4 in the morning, get out the binoculars and try to spot it in the half hour you have before the sky starts brightening, and then _maybe_ you have a chance to see some fuzzy barely visible object.
It's certainly no Hyakutake.
NOT visible to the naked eye (Score:2)
The phrase "visible to those with exquisitely dark skies and sharp eyes," could be translated into English as NOT visible to the naked eye.
Re: (Score:2)
You'll need a low horizon towards the East, then kinda have to get up at like 4 in the morning,
I guess it depends where you are on the planet, my searches so far say just like you do but some other sources say West-North-West and I already spent enough time on this so I will just have a look West-North-West from my balcony tonight since I don't have a clear Est view. Also, keep in mind the planet is rotating so obviously, where to look at changes constantly.
Anyway, anybody knows where to look at a given the time of night from say, New York?
Re: (Score:2)
As soon as I saw the disagreement over visibility between the summary and headline I knew; nobody saw this unaided or even thinks they will, somebody just looked at the number of digits and decided to spew.
You definitely won't see it, because the marginal visibility for an object that size at that distance would be overhead. It is "almost" visible according to some individual variables, but there is nothing visible about the combination. I'm just glad it will be raining here so I won't be temped to try anyw
Only visible in the middle of the night (Score:4, Informative)
It seem theskylive.com doesn't seem to take daylight into account. It's saying that right now "It is visible looking in the South direction at an altitude of 57 above the horizon" and that "Given its current magnitude, C/2020 F8 (SWAN) is easily visible with the help of a small binocular."
It's 11:24 (am) here.
From Twitter: I am VISIBLE to the naked eye! I am 85,160,235 km away from Earth and my current magnitude is 5.5. You can spot me near the Pisces constellation. I'm pretty sure no mag 5.5 object is visible to the naked eye in the middle of the day. Or even with binoculars. Maybe with a large telescope (certainly the planets are visible with the right telescope).
For my location: RISE 3:39; TRANSIT 11:31 Max altitude: 56.8; SET 19:39 Azimuth: 291.4
Compared to sunrise and sunset at 05:26 and 21:16 respectively.
So if I want to see the comet I have a narrow period of time from 03:39 until the horizon is too bright to be able to see it.
I'm guessing this is similar for the rest of the world too.
Comet Swan? (Score:1)
Actually ATLAS is making a comeback ... (Score:3)
Like a famed astronomer and comet hunter said: comets are like cats: they have tails and will do what they want ...
Back in March, I took a time lapse series of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) [youtube.com], when it was still faint.
It has since fragmented [nasa.gov], and fizzled down.
But according to to current data, it will brighten up to a magnitude of below 1.0 between May 24th, and June 3rd, reaching all the way to 0.1 on the 29th and 30th.
Here is a screen shot of its ephemeris [imgur.com].
If this holds up, it will be brighter than F8 SWAN.
You can download the free Cartes du Ciel [ap-i.net] (CdC or SkyCharts), update the comet elements every day, and monitor how it is doing. You can also do what I did, and animate its path in the sky [youtube.com] using the latest available orbital data for it.
comets are like cats... (Score:2)
Like a famed astronomer and comet hunter said: comets are like cats: they have tails and will do what they want ...
...and for all the impressive twisting and turning they do, they are still subject to gravity.