Thanks to Golden Age of Gaia.

Watch for Comet PANSTARRS This Month

Stephen Cook: Just as Ashira suggested on An Hour With An Angel just two weeks ago, it’s time for us to look to the skies more and more.

We’ve already had the spectacular ‘meteor’ showers over Russia, Cuba, Japan, the Netherleands and even San Francisco, all of which we reported on last month.

Now  comes Comet PANSTARRS. I can only wonder what else will also catch our eye from above?

From the comet blog Waiting for Ison – March 2, 2013

http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/comet-panstarrs/

We’re now just over a week away from our first views of Comet PANSTARRS up here in the northern hemisphere. It’s been a long wait, and a frustrating one. We’ve had ups and downs – periods when the comet seemed to be on-track to be “another Hale-Bopp”, and periods when its rate of brightening seemed to be slowing so much it was destined to be so faint we’d need binoculars to see it.

But it’s now looking very promising that PANSTARRS will be a lovely object in the evening up here north of the equator after all.

But more recently the comet has seemed to wake up a little, and observers in the southern hemisphere have been enjoying quite lovely views of it with their naked eyes. Low in their sky it has displayed very obvious tails, and has been an easy naked eye object, even from light polluted towns and cities. I think it looks like a “mini Comet West” on the most recent photos I’ve seen, which is very exciting! So, looking at the latest photographs, like this…

…and reading the excited and satisfied reports of observers Down Under, we northern hemisphere comet observers and number crunchers have become more hopeful, and many seasoned comet observers now seem to agree that PANSTARRS *will* be a good naked eye comet for northern hemisphere observers after all, although it will certainly be “challenging” to see in the bright twilight. All we can do now is wait and see.

Although we now know for certain that PANSTARRS isn’t going to be as bright or as prominent as ISON, it will still be worth looking for in the sunset sky, not just because it could still be a very “pretty” comet in its own right, with a lovely forked tail, but because it will provide all of us comet-watchers with a fantastic opportunity to practice taking photos of a comet with our digital cameras (when Hale-Bopp was in the sky very few people had digital cameras, they were almost science fiction! I spent a FORTUNE on slide film!!), and observing a comet with whatever equipment we use for our amateur astronomy, which will be invaluable when ISON finally appears in the sky at year’s end.

So, back to basics, forgetting all the hype and hyperbole that’s gone before, starting with a clean piece of paper – where do YOU look for Comet PANSTARRS?

Well, if you live in the middle latitudes (that’s between, say, 45 and 60 deg N) of the northern hemisphere, it’s really quite simple. From March 10th or so you look towards the west right after sunset, and start looking for a smudgy… elongated… tadpole- or v-shaped thing… in the sky. That will be Comet PANSTARRS. This graphic from NASA shows what I mean by that very well… (Note: don’t take the picture TOO literally, at least not the way the comet is shown. That’s just a guide. It will look more like a misty “V” than the single, straight, vapour trail-like line shown here)

The best times to look will be on the evenings of March 12th and 13th, because on those evenings you can use the crescent Moon as a guide to help you find PANSTARRS. On the 12th the comet will be to the Moon’s upper left. On the 13th, the comet will be to the Moon’s lower right.

Simple, right?

Well, ish. Seeing PANSTARRS is still going to need a bit of work on your part.

The basic problem is that the comet is never going to get very high in the northern sky, at least not while it’s at its best. We’re always and only going to see it low on the horizon, shortly after sunset. That means we’ll be looking for a faint smudgy thing, low down, in a bright sky. That’s an AWFUL combination!! But if PANSTARRS keeps brightening as it is at the moment, we should be able to find it easily with the naked eye, and if we can’t, well, patiently sweeping the twilight with binoculars should bring pesky PANSTARRS out of hiding!

So, to see Comet PANSTARRS…

* You will need a FLAT WESTERN HORIZON. If your skyline in that direction is cluttered with trees, buildings, hills, whatever, chances are they’ll block your view of the comet. Flat is good. No. Flat is essential. Get out of town, get high, and find yourself somewhere to observe with as low and as boring a western horizon as possible. If you find a place that makes you think “Wow, photographs taken here would look really dull”… that’s a GREAT place for observing Comet PANSTARRSwith your naked eye and binoculars! If you’re a photographer, tho, a few low trees on the horizon will make your photographs look more attractive. More on photographing PANSTARRS later in ths article.

* Although PANSTARRS should be a naked eye comet, it’s not going to be an EASY naked eye comet like Hale-Bopp, Lovejoy or McNaught, because we’re going to be seeing it against a bright sky, so you really should have a pair of binoculars handy when you’re looking for it. It’s hard to stress too much just how much of an enemy a bright background sky is for comet observers, even when the comet in question is bright. Yes, PANSTARRS is definitely going to be a challenge. Binoculars will be your new best friends in a week or so’s time.

* Photographing PANSTARRS from up here in t’north isn’t going to be easy (the whole faint comet/bright sky thing) but don’t let that stop you trying! It’s not as if you’re going to be using/wasting precious and expensive photographic film is it? In fact, I want to encourage everyone reading this to take as many photographs as possible, just try lots of different exposures and “click click click” away until your fingers bleed and your camera glows red hot. Some of the pictures will have the comet on them. Trust me. There’s a guide to photographing PANSTARRS during the first few days of its visit to the northern sky later in this article.

Good luck everyone!