Astronomy Events 2013

[outdoor_lover]

Looks like there may be some great excuses to do another HAZ Sky Gazing Event.... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 31443.html

[beterarcher]

I'm thinking that pan-STARRS will be about two hand widths below and one hand width North of the Moon tonight. Not as photogenic with out the Moon in the shot but pretty cool none the less.

[outdoor_lover]

Holy This is a visual that really puts things in perspective....

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130315.html

[PaleoRob]

Cool!

[big_load]

@Outdoor Lover
It didn't look like that here.

[outdoor_lover]

Get ready, the next one is next month..... Comet Lemmon http://astroguyz.com/2013/01/25/on-the- ... f6-lemmon/

[Dschur]

My husband and I went out last night to see PAN-STARRS again. It was easily naked eye at 715. He got some more shots of it and will post later. The moon is getting brighter now and will start washing it out in the evening sky and high clouds are supposed to come in this weekend.

[azbackpackr]

The planetary alignment just after sunset is pretty cool. Tonight Mercury, Venus and Jupiter were lined up, in that order, with Mercury on the top. Saturn is also visible more in the eastern sky. You can also see Earth, if you can see down between your feet...

[chumley]

Aaaahhh, hindsight!

'Brighter than a full moon': The biggest star of 2013... could be Ison - the comet of the century

By late November it will be visible to the unaided eye just after dark in the same direction as the setting Sun. Its tail could stretch like a searchlight into the sky above the horizon. Then it will swing rapidly around the Sun, passing within two million miles of it, far closer than any planet ever does, to emerge visible in the evening sky heading northward towards the pole star. It could be an "unaided eye" object for months. When it is close in its approach to the Sun it could become intensely brilliant but at that stage it would be difficult and dangerous to see without special instrumentation as it would be only a degree from the sun.

Or it could basically melt and go away. But apparently there is a sliver of hope that it survived it's trip around the sun (despite being declared dead). Unfortunately astronomers in the US don't work on Thanksgiving weekend and the Europeans don't work on Saturday, so there hasn't been any new news since. In the meantime, apparently ISON is a zombie comet.
http://www.universetoday.com/106832/zom ... omers-say/

[big_load]

It doesn't sound hopeful. There hasn't been a comet in my lifetime that lived up to the hype. Hale-Bopp probably came the closest, with Hyakutake perhaps second.

Battams said skilled astrophotographers might be able to capture a picture of the comet's Thanksgiving leftovers within a couple days, when ISON has moved farther away from the sun's glare. The rest of us are almost certainly out of luck, though there's always a chance the comet will pull off yet another death-defying stunt.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/comet-is ... 2D11674277

[Dschur]

http://schursastrophotography.com/newco ... 20113.html

[big_load]

@Dschur
nice shots!

[outdoor_lover]

And...to round out 2013 in Astronomy...It's the Geminids! One of the best annual Meteor Shows out there....There will be a Full Moon, but this Shower is bright, so you may be able to see...Also best viewing may be from Moonset to Dawn early on the 13th and 14th....

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/geminids.cfm

[Dschur]

Don't miss comet Lovejoy out there can be seen in the morning sky before the sun comes up...