Thursday, November 14, 2013
Comet C/2012 S1 ISON fires up! 15-22 November 2013
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| Location of comet C/2012 S1 ISON in the solar system on 15 November. Click to embiggen | Morning sky from Friday November 15 to November 22 looking north-east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am ACST in South Australia. Comet C/2012 S1 ISON is close to the bright star Spica. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen). |
Comet C/2012 S1 ISON has turned on. Gianluca Masi has seeing it naked eye using averting vision from a good dark site. The TRAPPIST team have reported a doubling of gas production in the last 24 hours, and creditable reports put the comet between magnitudes 6.5 and 6.1. This represents around a full magnitude jump in 24 hours.
What this means for the comets future is uncertain, this may be a prelude to a more steady brightening, as the comet is well inside Venus's orbit, or it may be the prelude to disintegration. Only time will tell but now is a good time for observation.
Still, unless there is significant brightening in the next few days it will still be difficult to see from Australian sites. Visible in 10x50 binoculars it has been described as having a star like appearance. However, its fuzzy, diffuse nature, its closeness to the horizon (between 2 -8 degrees depending on where you are, except Darwin and Far North Queensland, where it is more like 16 degrees above the horizon see here for charts illustrating the difference at different sites) means that it can be difficult to spot visually in binoculars and smaller scopes.
The comet is to the right of Mars, and heading for the bright star Spica. Making finding it relatively easy on a line between Spica and Mars. The best time to look for it is when it is highest in the sky and the sky is darkest. However, especially in the Southern States, because it never gets very high, the best time to look is astronomical twilight. Astronomical twilight is an hour and a half before local sunrise.
On November 15 the comet is still in the
constellation of Virgo, and is between Earth's and Venus's orbits (see image
above). At this time, at astronomical twilight, comet
ISON is just two fingers width above the horizon as seen from the
latitude of
Melbourne, just under a hand span as seen from the latitude of Sydney, just under
two hand spans as seen from the latitude of Brisbane and almost 3 hand
spans as
seen from the latitude of Darwin. A hand-span is the distance across
your knuckles when your hand is outstretched at the end of your arm as
if making a "stop" sign.
On the 15th comet ISON is a handspan above and to the right of the bright star Porrima, and should be (just) visible to the unaided eye and easily visible in binoculars. However, the comet is also sinking towards the horizon, so you will have to wait deeper in the twilight for the comet to get reasonably high above the horizon, as the sky brightens the comet will be more difficult to see, offsetting its own rise in brightness.
The comet is also moving very quickly now, as it begins its final dive into the sun. Over the next 4 days the comet quickly approaches the bright star Spica, the obvious and brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. Comet ISON is closest on the 18th and 19th and should be very easy to pick up with this obvious guide post.
After this there are no obvious bright stars to act as guide posts, hopefully the comet should be fairly obvious. Whether it will outpace the rising dawn, and be come easily visible to the unaided eye without binoculars is uncertain at this stage. The comet is sufficiently low that you need to start looking at nautical twilight, and hour before local sunrise.
A printable PDF map is here.
On the 15th comet ISON is a handspan above and to the right of the bright star Porrima, and should be (just) visible to the unaided eye and easily visible in binoculars. However, the comet is also sinking towards the horizon, so you will have to wait deeper in the twilight for the comet to get reasonably high above the horizon, as the sky brightens the comet will be more difficult to see, offsetting its own rise in brightness.
The comet is also moving very quickly now, as it begins its final dive into the sun. Over the next 4 days the comet quickly approaches the bright star Spica, the obvious and brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. Comet ISON is closest on the 18th and 19th and should be very easy to pick up with this obvious guide post.
After this there are no obvious bright stars to act as guide posts, hopefully the comet should be fairly obvious. Whether it will outpace the rising dawn, and be come easily visible to the unaided eye without binoculars is uncertain at this stage. The comet is sufficiently low that you need to start looking at nautical twilight, and hour before local sunrise.
A printable PDF map is here.
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| A black and white map suitable for printing for use with binoculars and telescopes. The large circle is the approximate field of view of 10x50 binoculars.Time is astronomical twilight.Click to embiggen. The image is the same orientation as the horizon animation above. Click to embiggen | A high power stellarium view of the region around Porrima and Spica with ISON (expanded from the unaided eye view shown above) on November 18th at Nautical twilight. ISON is close to Spica at this time. Click to embiggen. |
Labels: binoculars, C/2012 S1 ISON, telescope, unaided eye
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:43 pm 
Comments:
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Sadly the clouds are being most inconsiderate for us in Sydney.....more rain on its way too. Sigh.
# posted by 
: 1:03 am
: 1:03 am
We were lucky enough to see it in canberra yesterday (unaided eye) at 19:45pm. It does live up to it's hype ...so magical!
# posted by : 8:09 pm
: 8:09 pm
That would have been Venus, ISON is not visible in the evening, only in the morning just before twilight
Right Ian,
Venus is going off precisely at 7.45 pm till it sets.
But I'm pretty sure I saw SION from Canberra this morning at 4.40am due East with unaided eye but it's very faint(and I was standing in a Trig point Triangle).But did anybody notice the other strange stuff?. I won't go into detail or be awarded the Tin Hat award, and was looking straight out over ADFA ;)
Comet Lovejoy is near Osiris-Orion too.
Venus is going off precisely at 7.45 pm till it sets.
But I'm pretty sure I saw SION from Canberra this morning at 4.40am due East with unaided eye but it's very faint(and I was standing in a Trig point Triangle).But did anybody notice the other strange stuff?. I won't go into detail or be awarded the Tin Hat award, and was looking straight out over ADFA ;)
Comet Lovejoy is near Osiris-Orion too.
# posted by : 6:36 am
: 6:36 am
Yes, faint is the word. despite it's recent outburst. However, Lovejoy is below Leo, just scraping the horizon, not over near Kulkunbulla
thanks Ian - does Venus travel rapidly with a long trail behind it? perhaps it was another comet? or something else? we were able to take some photos and have compared them with other comet images and they look very similar
# posted by : 10:10 am
: 10:10 am
No, Venus does't, and neither does ISON (or any other comet, they look as if they are effective stationary when you watch them). ISON is barely unaided eye visible and has a short tail which is only really visible in binoculars or a telescope.
Meteor then.
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Meteor then.
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