Comets and meteors
Mar 2, 2013 15:38:26 GMT
Post by tod2 on Mar 2, 2013 15:38:26 GMT
With all the meteorite news lately I thought I would show you what you missed in the Southern hemisphere when Comet McNaught graced our skies.
This is the very first comet I have seen.
What was said in the media:
At sunset, motorists in South Africa pulled over to
watch what seemed to be a bush fire. As the twilight deepened,
however, they realized it was something else: the extravagant
tail of Comet McNaught. Even experienced astronomers say
they've never seen anything quite like it. McNaught's tail
materializes at sunset in the southern hemisphere and is
visible to the unaided eye as a majestic fan of pale streamers.
The comet itself is visible only from the southern hemisphere,
but its tail sweeps all the way back into northern skies. People
in California, Colorado and Hawaii have seen it peeking above
the western horizon about an hour after sunset.
This is the comets first visit to our inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100 million mile close encounter in mid-June. Comet McNaught (C/2009 R1) has a vivid green head and a long wispy tail.
To get a good viewing position we were one of the first to arrive but it did not take long for the cars to fill up every empty space alongside the road.
Like excited school children we kept a beady eye out for the first glimpse of a 'spark' in the sky!
A bank of clouds had us worried that they would move in just at the crucial moment.
We need not have worried as the sky remained clear and soon here was McNaught in all it's glory!
All we had was our camera and a tripod so as the crowd grew friendlier we were able to stroll around and have a peep through other telescopes.
It was hard to drag ourselves away but McNaught was flying and it was time we did as well. What a night.
This is the very first comet I have seen.
What was said in the media:
At sunset, motorists in South Africa pulled over to
watch what seemed to be a bush fire. As the twilight deepened,
however, they realized it was something else: the extravagant
tail of Comet McNaught. Even experienced astronomers say
they've never seen anything quite like it. McNaught's tail
materializes at sunset in the southern hemisphere and is
visible to the unaided eye as a majestic fan of pale streamers.
The comet itself is visible only from the southern hemisphere,
but its tail sweeps all the way back into northern skies. People
in California, Colorado and Hawaii have seen it peeking above
the western horizon about an hour after sunset.
This is the comets first visit to our inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100 million mile close encounter in mid-June. Comet McNaught (C/2009 R1) has a vivid green head and a long wispy tail.
To get a good viewing position we were one of the first to arrive but it did not take long for the cars to fill up every empty space alongside the road.
Like excited school children we kept a beady eye out for the first glimpse of a 'spark' in the sky!
A bank of clouds had us worried that they would move in just at the crucial moment.
We need not have worried as the sky remained clear and soon here was McNaught in all it's glory!
All we had was our camera and a tripod so as the crowd grew friendlier we were able to stroll around and have a peep through other telescopes.
It was hard to drag ourselves away but McNaught was flying and it was time we did as well. What a night.