Massive comet will shine brighter than the moon ?

A massive two-mile-wide comet will be visible from Earth in late 2013, possibly appearing brighter than the moon during November and December, according to astronomers.
The comet, discovered by amateur Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, is among the brightest comets ever identified. According to NASA, the comet is currently falling toward the Sun from between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. In early 2013 October it will pass near Mars — where NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover will snap a photo.

LINK

We shall see, with a little patience...

the jimmy wrote in post #15425265
We shall see, with a little patience...

And some luck - it's going to get pretty close to the Sun, possibly close enough to be shredded.

How fast would something this that be traveling? Slower than a meteor shower? I hope so!

EightEleven wrote in post #15426705
How fast would something this that be traveling? Slower than a meteor shower? I hope so!

Well, the comet itself will be moving very fast. However, it will be a lot further away than a meteor (several million km vs several 10s of km). That means it will move very slowly across the night sky, probably slower than the Moon. Getting a photo of it will mean coping with the same problems as any astronomical object, the rotation of the Earth. If it really does get as bright and big as is hoped then getting a nice image should be fairly easy, even with a kit lens on an ordinary tripod.

I might even have to start thinking about getting away somewhere with darker, less cloudy skies than the UK.

^^^ very good, thanks for the info! We will wait and see, but lets not rush things!

The problem is, it will do its very near pass to the sun BEFORE it makes its fly-by with Earth. There is a very strong possibility that it will be destroyed by the heat of the sun before it gets to us. With a lot of luck, it will remain intact and give us an amazing show as it passes by.

"Current predictions note the object’s magnitude could jumped above 16 — making it far brighter than the full Moon."

Cool - A comet with its own magnitude scale. You gotta love journalists.
I bet the same person will write how "astronomers get it wrong again" in a year or so.

That reminds me - we haven't seen a "Mars will be bigger than the Moon" thing for a while either.

Steve.

I was reading that if it survives it's trip around the sun it could very well be visible during the day as well
I was going to ask in relation to this post about software.
I am looking into buying software that adds to a database which updates often so I can track these type of objects in the night sky. Does anyone have experience with these softwares and can recommend one for me please.
Thanks for any help offered
Tim

wagaboo wrote in post #15430290
I was reading that if it survives it's trip around the sun it could very well be visible during the day as well
I was going to ask in relation to this post about software.
I am looking into buying software that adds to a database which updates often so I can track these type of objects in the night sky. Does anyone have experience with these softwares and can recommend one for me please.
Thanks for any help offered
Tim

I use Starry Night Pro Plus which has a database of such objects that gets updated very frequently. It has Comet ISON and shows that it'll be passing close to Castor in Gemini in two week's time. But it'll be magnitude 16, so you'll need some good optics to see it. I'm not sure how good the cheaper versions of SN will be at updating comet info, but I'd be surprised if they didn't show it.

Hollis_f, thank you very much for that info as it's greatly appreciated

If you have an iPad then Sky Safari + also has it in its current database.

SteveInNZ wrote in post #15427936
"Current predictions note the object’s magnitude could jumped above 16 — making it far brighter than the full Moon."

Cool - A comet with its own magnitude scale. You gotta love journalists.
I bet the same person will write how "astronomers get it wrong again" in a year or so.

That reminds me - we haven't seen a "Mars will be bigger than the Moon" thing for a while either.

Steve.

Could have been that a copy editor removed the (-), or thought it was meant to be that dash after the number.

Yeah, I'm sure that's probably the case.
They also forget to mention that the brightest will be when it's less than a degree from the sun. It will be whatever it will be and I'm looking forward to it, whatever it does.
My second statement still holds though.

http://www.astro.umd.e​du …rticles/ison-update-mar13

http://www.nasa.gov …es/swift/bursts​/ison.html

http://www.universetod​ay.com …3-could-be-the-best-ever/

cheers!

Unfortunately it appears the much anticipated ISON will be disappointing. I was really looking forward to photographing this event in November. We'll have to wait until September when the comet emerges from the glare of the Sun to see how things are shaping up.

http://newswatch.natio​nalgeographic.com …comet-ison-pop-or-fizzle/