dave robinson Posted October 26, 2007 Share Posted October 26, 2007 (edited) If you go outside tonight and look in the northeast sky you can see a comet.You have to know where to look.It's located in the constellation Perseus just west of the star delta Perseus. If you can find the big W shape of Cassiopia, it's about two hand spans below that. There's a finder chart at this link:http://www.cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/17P.gif It doesn't have a long tail but it is a very interesting object nonetheless.It was almost invisible in telescopes just a few days ago but has suddenly brightened to naked eye visibility. To the unaided eye it looks like a slightly fuzzy star.In binoculars it's a small fuzzy ball Check out the attached link for an image taken by an amateur astronomer.It looks almost exactly like this in my 10" telescope.http://www.starlightccd.com/temp/17p-100x-20071025.jpg If you're interested, the Observatory at the Telus World of Science will be open tonight Saturday and Sunday from dusk to 10 pm at least and will have several telescopes trained on the comet. Edited October 26, 2007 by dave robinson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerBob Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 You mean this one? My first shot of a comet... with the 'ole 4" SCT as my 8" SCT is still waiting parts from Meade. Aye.. have just rediscovered my telescope. Indeed, Dave knows what he speaks of.. this one is uber impressive. May show up to a meeting soon if more special brownies are served. In the meantime, I am just digging out my Fly Bench from last summer. I am so confused as to what season it is.. astro.. hunting... fishing.. tying... Gosh! Such a mess! Anyways, I have more grouse feathers for Soft Hackles. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerBob Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 No, my tying bench is still not clean.. in fact it's worse. I may clean it up this weekend, or, go shoot pics of the Leonid Meteor shower instead. ;^) http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/ Oh yeah, test picture post here... and it's official. This comet 17P is now LARGER THEN THE SUN, and the biggest object ever in our Solar System. I was glad to get an image of it while I could... most AMAZING thing I have seen in the night sky in my years of observing. It's also starting to get dimmer now. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rangerbob/1930833985/ Hyup, picture posting is working again Dan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.