NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Exotic Comet (no navigation)
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 28, 19:43 -0400
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 28, 19:43 -0400
In case there are any list members who haven't heard about it... Last week a small, insignificant object, Comet Holmes, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter brightened from magnitude 17.5 to magnitude 2.5. That's 15 magnitudes. And since every 5 steps of magnitude represents a factor of 100 in brightness, that means that this little comet is a million times brighter this week than last week. That's a rather unusual brightening! There's lots of coverage and observational reports on skyandtelescope.com. This comet is very easy to observe and now that the 'explosion' is several days old, the cloud around the comet's nucleus is approaching ten minutes of arc in diameter. Binoculars or a good sextant telescope will be enough to see it in some detail, and you can just make out that it is not a star even without optical aid. The Moon is very bright right now and city lights are always a nuisance, but this comet's an easy mark since it transits in the middle of the night. The comet is located in the constellation Perseus which passes high overheard at around 1 or 2am local time, closer to 2 for most time zones. The Declination is about 50N so look 40 degrees above Polaris at that time. In mid-northern latitudes, you'll be looking nearly straight up. Sorry Australians and other antipodeans --this one is not expected to move into southern declinations. -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---