Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Naked Eye Comet

One of my recent wishes is to see a comet in the wild. It looks like this month might be a good time to check that off of my bucket list. We've got one in the sky right now.
A recently discovered comet is surprising skywatchers by becoming brighter than predictions had first suggested and can now be seen with the unaided eye during the next few weeks. ... The comet is visible now for people with dark skies away from urban and suburban lighting. By mid-June it may be an easy skywatching target for most people. ... Comets are very unpredictable, but some astronomers say Comet McNaught might reach magnitude +2 by the end of June. If so, it won't rival the brightest stars in the sky, but it should be easy to spot and readily identifiable as a comet.

I'm trying to figure out if it will be bright enough to see from our house or not. If not I may need to figure a little trip to a nearby observatory. And I see a scheduled time on June 19th . . .
If you live near some dark skies and/or have a clear view to the east you might want to check this out. The first linked article has a pretty easy to use star map on it. Good comets don't come around very often.

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