Comet watching

i was out at meansy_wood's place and we saw the commet. looked pretty cool and we saw it 2 nights in a row:cool:. we didn't take pics though.

cheers

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Originally Posted by Bob Childress

Odd that. I was told that something else would make me go blind. :rolleyes:

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I knew I'd get that response from somebody..just didn't know who it was going to be (Grunt was my first guess) :U

All I can say is remember "Day of the Triffids":oo:

I''ve been on holidays in Coffs Harbour. I can't think of a more useless spot to try to see the western horizon at dusk. Cloud every night and mountains in the road. I did however win a raffle at the botanic gardens and came home with a very nice red cedar clock.
Home tonight I took the pic in this thread.
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=43873
It is really quite bright easily seen with the naked eye. To find it you need a low western horizon. Find venus first. It is the very bright "star" low in the west. The comet is about 3 extended hands breadths to the south of venus at about the same level above the horizon. It will be in about the same spot for the next few days.

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Originally Posted by Terry B

I'' It will be in about the same spot for the next few days.

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I thought they kept moving :?

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Originally Posted by Gumby

I thought they kept moving :?

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It heard about a green, non believing earthling and decided to hang around for a bit to annoy him :D

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Originally Posted by Gumby

I thought they kept moving :?

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They do keep moving and it will rise higher in the sky each night but will get correspondingly dimmer as it moves further away from the sun. However from a practical viewpoint it will be in a similar position each night just a little bit higher. The chart explains.

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Originally Posted by Terry B

They do keep moving and it will rise higher in the sky each night but will get correspondingly dimmer as it moves further away from the sun. However from a practical viewpoint it will be in a similar position each night just a little bit higher. The chart explains.

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chomp ! :D:U

Latest pics, actually from Aussie, but from an astronomy type person.

Very COOL pic :cool:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070122.html

Cheers

Ian

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Originally Posted by Ianab

Latest pics, actually from Aussie, but from an astronomy type person.

Very COOL pic :cool:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070122.html

Cheers

Ian

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I suppose this is true. The photos are actually taken by the comets discover Rob Mcnaught from the Anglo Australian Observatory (AAO) in Coonabarrabran. You could call him "an astronomy type person."
See here http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1new.htm
for more details about the images. Pretty amazing stuff.

Didn't realise it was still around. Had a look at it last weekend and the tail was very short. It was only just above the horizon for about half an hour or so. Hard to pick out with the naked eye but you could see the tail though binoculars.

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Originally Posted by AlexS

Does anyone remember the name of the comet that was around in the late 1960s or very early 1970s? It appeared about half the diameter of the moon, with a tail - much bigger than anything since, but there was hardly any interest in it.

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I heard that McNaught is the brightest comet to have been visible in Australia (if not ever them in our lifetimes)
So the one you saw must have been in the Seventies Alex, I saw a lot of them too...... all different colours and shapes...wow man that brings back memories:D

The last one I saw was Hale-Bop. Every evening it put on a lovely show I was on one of the Togian Islands in Sulawasi on my honeymoon...Ahhh how romantic.

I got kicked in the head by a drunken hoon once....saw stars for a week....:D

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Originally Posted by Gumby

better than the Non Event of the 20th Century...Halley's.

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And here's me thinking that the Non Event of the 20th Century was the Y2K bug!

The only time all you IT fella's got one over us. No wonder that your all as popular as a fart in the bath.

Comet McNaught is clearly visible over Melbourne tonight. :)

Its at about 210 degrees, magnetic or three and a bit hand spans south ( to the left of the Moon) and about two lengths of the moon lower than the moon. It can be clearly seen with the naked eye but a pair of binoculars is very much better.:2tsup: