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Re: Get Ready for Comet PanSTARRS!
In reply to Trollmann,
3 months ago
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Trollmann wrote:
Comet PanSTARRS is one of the exiting comets, because it can become a good comet, or it can fizzle out (like comet Kohoutek) and because the weather is rather lousy in my part of the world.
Comet Kohoutek's performance in 1974 turned that name into a description of a comet fizzle. I have a somewhat better memory of its appearance. Having already traveled to southern California for a wedding, I took a detour to Kit Peak in Arizona for Kohoutek's show. The director of Kit Peak Observatory graciously allowed this young long-haired astronomer to stay up there beyond visitor hours for comet viewing. I recall watching with my 8-inch reflector as the somewhat dim but close comet moved rapidly past the stars. Its motion was apparent in just a minute's viewing. PanSTARRS will be interesting no matter how it turns out.
At its brightest the comet will be rather close to the horizon at sunset, so it will be visible in bright twilight and set before darkness. At my nothernly latitude, almost 60° north, the comet will be visible in the late evening sky and the early morning sky - and turning circumpolar in april when it will become too faint for the unaided eye.
The March issue of Sky and Telescope magazine points out that observers in more northerly latitudes will be favored with the comet being higher in a dark sky later in the month. While the comet will be dimmer, being high in a dark sky is a definite advantage. Of course the Moon will be an increasing irritant later in the month. Perhaps there will be a period after Moon-set when the comet is still above your northern horizon.
I love all those variables, spicing my hunt for the comet. All this uncertainity is wonderful as I have no idea if I will succeed or if this whole comet thing will be a fiasco - exiting times!
My gear will be the Polarie and 35mm and 100 mm lenses, and binoculars to hopefully locate and see whatever might be there. Have to find a place with a low north western horizon so moving away from my cozy home is required (that is the bad news for lazy me).
Sure that more information about the comet will be posted here.
So - to all of you - go for PanSTARRS in march - and happy hunting!
--
Best Regards,
Russ
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