By Pete Collins Comet Ison brightened
significantly 13/14 Nov, thought to be due to
fragmentation of the nucleus. It now appears to be
brightening all the time and is now showing a very long
tail - check out the photo below taken 17 Nov by
Michael Jager, an Austrian astronomer.
It is heading towards the sun and is at perihelion on 28
Nov. If you don't spot it in the next few days it will
probably be too hard to see against the dawn sky, but you
never know. If it survives its encounter with the sun it
could be very bright before dawn from about 5 December. From
about 15 December it should also be visible after sunset low
in the west. It will then get higher in the sky in the
evening but will be dimming all the time.Latest reports are that it is at magnitude 4.5 which makes it observable with the naked eye from a dark site, or pretty easy with binoculars. The catch is that you need to get up early to see it. Tomorrow morning it rises at about 5am. The best time to see it is probably about 6am before the sun starts coming up. You need a clear eastern horizon and look just south of due east. At this time Mercury will be in the east just above the horizon and Ison will be a bit further to the right, 8 degrees above the horizon and just below and to the left of the bright star Spica. If it isn't obvious, try sweeping just above the eastern horizon with binoculars. Comets are notoriously difficult to predict, but at the
moment it is estimated that Ison could reach magnitude 0,
about as bright as the star Vega. Not quite the Comet of the
Century, but you never know! If there are any further
developments we will let you know on Thursday.  Comet ISON photographed on Nov. 17th by amateur astronomer Michael Jager of Jauerling Austria. For more photographs of Ison by Michael Jager, please see http://cometpieces-at.webnode.at/ |
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