OMG.
I just came back from viewing Comet McNaught. I went outside my house just after the Sun went below the horizon, and found the comet within seconds using my binoculars. It was gorgeous. The head is phenomenally bright, easily magnitude 0 if not -1. The tail is very bright near the head, and sweeps up and to the right, pointing away from the Sun.
I then backed off the binocs, and saw the comet with my unaided eyes. It was obvious… and then I realized I could see the tail! It was very easy to spot fanning away from the bright pinpoint head.
That was so cool! You have to realize, the sky was still very bright; the Sun had just set minutes before. I could have easily read small print in a book, to give you an idea of how much twilight there was. Yet there was the comet’s tail! I could trace it for easily a half degree, the size of the full Moon, with just my eyes. It was several degrees long through the binocs.
Fan-frakking-tastic.
It’s already set for everyone in the continental U.S. as I write this, but it’ll be visible tomorrow night as well. If weather permits, tomorrow GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK FOR THIS COMET.
Wow.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
wow! that was one of the coolest things i’ve seen in the sky for a long time. thank goodness for the massive cold front that swept through washington state and cleared out our skies. i had a perfect view of the head & tail from my front porch, and was able to get a great look through my little telescope and my binoculars. but the naked-eye view was the most impressive. just wow.
January 11th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I tried multiple times to see it, but it’s some sort of conspiracy. Whenever the sun sets lately, the clouds appear in the west. :\
January 11th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I am extremely thnkful for the wonderful description
about Comet MCNAUGHT.
Though I could not see it personally from here the
poetic beautiful narration about the Comet made me
to visualise it perfectly.
Thank You Once again
MohanD
January 11th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Stupid clouds in socal.
January 11th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Clouds and general location will probably kill it for me. I’ll try!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
[...] I’ve been hoping for the last few nights to get out around sunset and look for Comet McNaught. Unfortunately, it’s been cloudy all week by the time sunset rolls around. And in a couple of days, it’ll slip past the sun and appear in the morning sky instead. At that point, I won’t have a chance of seeing it. Even if I could get myself out of bed before dawn, the eastern horizon is blocked by mountains. Share this link:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
January 11th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I went out tonight to try to look for it but starting from about the alt of Venus on down to the horizon, it was nothing but clouds.
So instead I took pictures of the sunset and clouds every ~40 seconds and I’m working on putting it all together in an animation.
January 11th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I went out and saw it tonight too, and it was just as you said (likely because my viewing location’s just a few jogs south of yours). I found it easily in binoculars, and then saw not only the comet but the tail unaided. It was pretty darn skippy.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Phil, How did it compare to Hale-Bopp (assume you saw that back in 1997). Didn’t make it out of the office in time to catch it tonight, but tomorrow I should be out earlier.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
HB was better, to be honest, but it had dark skies and was up higher. This one has the cool factor going because I could see it and its tail in what was essentially daylight.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Yep, from Prince George (Canada) it snuck out of the clouds (well, the clouds abated a wee bit and it was visible) for a clea naked eye-er well before it was dark. It was clear for about 5 min’s and four strangers huddled in -25c plus wind on a hilltop out of town to see it. What a sight.
I heard it is going to be gone after tomorrow…any other news? I basically get this form http://www.spaceweather.com
peace,
M
January 11th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Damn it! ANOTHER freakin’ storm has hit Denver and is supposed to be around for the next 3 days. Ugh.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Better than Hale-Bopp, I’d say — the tail seems quite a bit longer. McNaught is SO COOL. Can’t wait for another look tomorrow!
January 12th, 2007 at 12:51 am
I’m a little confused — after it passes perihelion, will it be a strictly Southern Hemisphere object, will it remain visible in the North in the mornings, or will it disappear for a few weeks and reappear once it gets farther from the Sun? I saw it tonight for the first time, and it was beautiful — although not as sublime as Hale-Bopp or Hyakutake. I’d like to get another chance it tomorrow is cloudy!
January 12th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Comet McNaught from Under Chicago Skies
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/josephguzman/Comets/McNaught9a_filtered1.jpg[/IMG]
Viewing comet McNaught from light polluted Chicago skies was spectacular! Classical fan-tail extending quite a bit away from the coma, and even showed thru low hugging clouds. Just amazing!
Easily spotted naked eye, it posed for photographs quite nicely, and a full narrative with images can be found at the Chicago Astronomer:
http://tinyurl.com/ykxef2
What a great treat from a surprise comet!
January 12th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Oh the humanity! The clouds got in the way!
But the moon and Venus (I think it was Venus) and a few stars made a good show.
January 12th, 2007 at 6:53 am
[...] Looks like yet another cool astronomical phenonmenon is going to pass me by before I’ll get to see it. I’ve been checking the horizon every night for the past several days in hopes of being able to see Comet McNaught, but unfortunately, I’ve been hampered by consistent cloud cover. And the weather report for the next several does not look promising or encouraging. It’s a bummer, really. Seems like every time something cool happens in the night skies, I miss out. Last time Haley’s Comet traveled past, it was the same thing – heavy cloud cover during the prime viewing time. I did get to see Hale-Bopp, at least, so I guess that’s something. Looks like I’ll just have to content myself with seeing photographs of McNaught. [...]
January 12th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Yeah! Freakin’ awesome is right Phil.
Amazing but true….I actually saw it last night here in Seattle. Rain, wind, floods, disaster, and now very cold, but the western skies cleared an there it was. Way cool!
I took some photos, but my darn DSLR had crud on the CCD chip. I cleaned it off and will try again tonight.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:42 am
*cries*
How long is it expected to be visable?
It’s storming here.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I stayed late at work last night specifically so I could go over to the next building and up to the third floor where there’s a good view of the western horizon. WELL worth it. A crowd had gathered, someone turned out the room lights, and binoculars were being passed around. Quite beautiful.
By the way, from where I was standing, I could see TWO comets. The second one having been manufactured by DeHaviland back in the early 1960′s!
January 12th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I finally got to see the thing for myself on the airplane flying home from the AAS Meeting. I actually got some photos that I took from the airplane! I hadn’t thought that they’d turn out, but they aren’t so bad. It’s really impressive! Iposted them on my site: http://astroprofspage.com/archives/610
January 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I was wondering last night if someone flying north or south would look out their window at sunset and get a surprise!
January 12th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
[...] Go see Comet McNaught [...]
January 12th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Getting out to see it in 2 hours….Can’t wait
January 12th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I saw it from downtown St. Paul Minnesota, on the Wabasha St. bridge over the Mississippi. Beautiful!!! (And cold–7 degrees Farenheit! The weather, not the comet.)
January 12th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Here we go, its entered SOHOs field of view: http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/data/realtime/c3/512/
It’s making Mercury seem like a spec of dust.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
So..I’m here in central Canada. It was clear and very cold tonite. Pardon my ignorance of the subject, but I’m a newbie.
Would the comet have been the brightest light in the SW sky? Before the stars arrived? Or would that have been planet Venus that I saw.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Venus was visible before the comet and was brighter. It had a very obvious tail and fuzzyness to it, so if you saw it you’d know it was a comet.
January 14th, 2007 at 6:52 am
WHAT DIRECTION DO YOU LOOK AT SUNSET? SOUTH OR WEST? I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHERE I SHOULD BE TONIGHT.
January 14th, 2007 at 8:33 am
CAN THIS COMET BE SEEN AT SUN RISE? DAVID SAVANNAH GA
January 14th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Though the comet will not be visible at night for Northern Hemishere observers, it is bright enough to see during the day if you block the Sun with a stationary object such as a building, and make sure you can see the sky to the left of the sun. About one hand-width to the left at local noon. If looking in the Afternoon, it will be more towards the 10-11 o’clock position.
Tomorrow look for it at about the 7:30 position the same general distance at noon.
Can’t do it today here due to weather in NH, but I’ve seen it 3 nights this week, plus I photographed it during the day on Wednesday:
http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5142927.html.
It may only be this bright for another day or so as it moves away from the Sun. See it while it lasts- truely a sight to behold!
Sean Walker
Assistant Editor
Sky & Telescope
http://SkyTonight.com
January 17th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I took some great shots of the McNaught Comet tonight (January 17th 2007) from Perth, Western Australia. The tail was massive and the comet extremely bright in the western sky after sunset. As I watched the comet setting over the Indian Ocean the tail seemed to change shape from a slight curve to the left – to near vertical. The comet itself had varying degrees of brightness and would change every few minutes. This was probably due to atmospheric conditions such as heat and dust. Photo of McNaught at http://www.PhotoShopAustralia.com
January 17th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I attempted to search for the comet in broad daylight from Chicago, but unlike my spectacular views of last week, I could not locate it in the glare of the Sun.
Used 10×50 binos and used a building to occult the sun. Surrounding sky very bright, and put on a polarizer lens to help. Still nothing.
Took some time for my indoor vision to return, but it is quite a dangerous actvity if accidently one swings past the solar disk.
Chicago Astronomer Joe
Administrator
http://www.chicagoastronomer.com
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I just saw a something in the sky, it was pink quite big and very high up. It looked a bit like a comet. It fell down and left a long tail behind, then it exploded and part of it began to shine again. It was in the south west area in England.
This was on the 23rd April 2007 at approximatley 8:35pm.
I live in the south east area in Hertfordshire, England.
If anyone has any imformation or saw the same thing as i did please email me on x-ellie95-x@hotmail.com.