Easy to see comet is here. | Golden Skate

Easy to see comet is here.

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
For all you space fans out there....I live in a nice dark place and if you live anywhere that is a bit dark, you will be able to see comet Wirtanen. Its here now but it will brighten up in the next week or two.
Check out the star chart I made. If you , or you and your smart fone app, can find the constallation Orion, you can see with the bare eye if its dark enough but its a slam dunk with any binoculars. Its sitting in
below Taurus right now at 11 pm here. In the southern sky, next to Orion. It will rise higher every night and you have till about the 18th to find it. There are star charts galore and info on the web if you need help in your part of the world. This chart is for North America. I put the comet's location for two days so that you can extrapolate. Look for the blue ball. Google "Wirtanen" for more info. Europeans are getting a good view. Here it is in Spain.
http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=149608
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
BTW, on the 15-18, the comet will buzz the star cluster pleiades, an easy to see high in the sky object that Orion's belt points to. You wont need to see it at any specific time....you just need to see pleiades and sweep your binocs to the right a bit. In Spokane now, as there are no clouds, the star cluster sticks out....as does Orion.
 
Top