Halloween Comet? Stay tuned!

Comets are largely unpredictable. Last January, one astronomers knew was getting near the Sun, Comet McNaught, suddenly brightened enough so it was visible here in twilight to the naked eye - that was much brighter than anyone had expected and brighter than any I've seen - and it put on an incredibly spectacular show for the southern hemisphere folks. (It was pretty good here, as well, but it blew right past before the popular news media knew what was happening. )

Enter the Halloween Comet of 2007 - Comet Loneos - or as it is officially known: C/2007 F1. Will it be spectacular? I doubt it. But it could be a very nice one of the sort you only get once every few years.

How bright will this one get? I don't know. Right now it's just a little blob visible in a small telescope. It was discovered in March and by the end of the month it could be visible to the naked eye - maybe as bright as magnitude 3 - and should be a real nice sight in binoculars. Then again, it may be a dud. This is the fun and frustration with comets. Right now this one is significantly brighter than people thought it would be, but it's very hard to see. It's underneath the Big Dipper's handle at sunset, so for starters you need an unobstructed northern horizon, good star charts, and must know just where to look on any given night. I looked at its predicted path in Starry Nights software and it will eventually work it's way a bit higher, go quite near to Arcturus and end up near Antares. (When this happens those stars will be quite near the western horizon.)

Comet Loneos is scheduled to be brightest right about the time of full moon near the end of the month. At that time the comet will be low in the west around sunset and the moon low in the east at the same moment, so hopefully the moon won't interfere too much. To see a comet well is always a balancing game. The closer it gets to the Sun, the brighter it gets - and the longer its tail gets - but the downside to that is that if it's near the Sun it's also near the horizon and appearing only in twilight.

So you just have to keep your fingers crossed, hope for a good opportunity when all the conditions - including weather, of course - are just right for the best view. Stay tuned. I

For an excellent brief introduction to comets, go here.

http://www.nineplanets.org/comets.html

How spectacular can a comet be? COMET LONEOS WILL NOT LOOK LIKE COMET MCNAUGHT - WON'T COME CLOSE - but to give you an idea why comets have excited folks throughout history, take a look at the archived photos on the site below where Spaceweather.com summarized that experience as follows:

"Comet McNaught swung by the Sun in mid-January 2007. Fierce solar heat turned it into the brightest comet in 40 years; for a few days it was actually visible in broad daylight! When McNaught emerged from the sun's glare into the skies of the Southern Hemisphere, the tail alone stopped traffic and was mistaken for a brush fire, an explosion, a mysterious cloud and probably many other things never reported. For photographers, it was the photo-op of a lifetime. Now Comet NcNaught is receding into the outer solar system never to return -- only the pictures remain. Enjoy the gallery!"

Go to:

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught.php

And for the most spectacular pictures see those around page 14 - such as this one from South Africa:

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/19jan07/Pieterse1.jpg

Again - don't expect any thing like this from Loneos. A Comet McNaught comes by once in a lifetime if you're lucky. But Loneos could give us a nice little show in binoculars and add a special touch to this Halloween.

Oh - an earlier blog entry - including pictures I took of McNaught over Horseneck Beach - can be found here:

http://www.giveyoujoy.net/awe/blog/archives/2007/01/a_big_wow_for_c.html