back to article Comet Lovejoy's greenish glow visible with naked eye this weekend

Northern stargazers in low-light environments should be able to pick up a greenish-looking space rock in the night's sky – as Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) makes its closest approach to Earth in living memory. Comet Lovejoy expelling carbon So long, won't see you later Lovejoy, named after the Australian amateur astronomer …

  1. stucs201

    So either...

    1) It's going to be really cloudy this weekend.

    or

    2) I need to go and buy lots of weedkiller and salt ready to deal with the triffids.

    1. Kane
      Alert

      Re: So either...

      Salt won't help you, you're better off cutting off the short stems they use to "knock" against the side of their stem.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

    or an ACME grand piano hanging from a rope above the other end of the see-saw that Mr Coyote recommends for all your leaping-5km-in-the-air needs (he does it catch road runners, I'll need to do it to get above the cloud deck)

    1. Mark 85

      Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

      Last comet I saw was in 1997. Since then it's always been fog or clouds. Can I borrow you ACME launching device when you're done with it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

        Hale Bopp was spectacular, missed Hailey's due to cloud. In fact, there is a weather conspiracy 'cos whenever *anything* interesting happens in the sky here in Blighty, you can guarantee cloud.

        To help I've just developed a radical new weather predictor program.

        10 Input A$ "Is There Astronomical Event In The Sky? "

        20 IF A$ = YES THEN LET Weather = BAD

        30 LET BAD= CLOUD

        40 PRINT BAD

        50 PAUSE 100

        60 GOTO 10

        That's my millions made...

        1. Chris Miller

          Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

          Forecast for SE England is currently clear skies tonight. But don't expect to be able to make out much more than a slightly fuzzy dot or to see any colours, even with bins. For that you'd need darker skies than are available within 100km of London :(

          1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

            Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

            Sadly this is true; I've been trying to *see* the Orion nebula (with a six inch scope) from Hemel for months; not a chance with the background light (though I did get a reasonable view from Skye over christmas, I didn't have the scope...)

            Let's see if the clouds blow out of the way tonight...

            1. Chris Miller

              Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

              Just come in from comet watching using a 10x42 monocular. Fuzzy monochrome ball - TBH Jupiter is far more impressive at present. The trouble is that the naive public sees long exposure telescope shots like the one adorning this article, and expect to see something similar above their heads (and blame the astronomers when they don't).

              I remember (strokes long grey beard) as a teenager on holiday in the west country, a 'proper' comet with a coma and a long tail (2-3 degrees) looking like a Giotto painting, this must have been around 1967/8. Everything since (visible from the UK) has been a fuzzy blob.

              1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

                Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

                Agreed; frustratingly found it and then lost it again several times with binocs tonight but spent an hour trying to track it down with a six inch reflector and a 25mm objective. Eventually got it and left the scope tracking it; let's see what the sky looks like when they turn the street lamps off at midnight.

                I recall seeing Hale-Bopp as a naked-eye object the size of the moon in, um, 1995 or so?

              2. Mike Flex

                Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

                "Just come in from comet watching using a 10x42 monocular. Fuzzy monochrome ball"

                Yup, that's what I saw with 7 x 50 binoculars on the edge of a town (hence not a dark sky). Still, my first comet.

                Parky out though, -1 deg C with the wind chill according to my Met Office app.

                1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

                  Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

                  And by the time the street lamps were out, it was behind the house... got a decent view of Orion's nebula, though.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

            160km from London, still a bit disappointing with binocs but at least I saw this one.

          3. ravenviz Silver badge
            Boffin

            Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

            Box Hill in Surrey is a National Trust recognized dark sky site, a snitch at under 40 km from central London.

        2. Jonathan Richards 1

          Re: > much better view of it with a telescope or good pair of binoculars.

          > missed Hailey's due to cloud

          s/Hailey/Halley

          The evidence is that the name should be pronounced to rhyme with 'valley' rather than 'gaily':

          Of all the comets in the sky,

          There's none like Comet Halley.

          We see it with the naked eye

          And periodically.

          The first to see it was not he,

          But still we call it Halley.

          The notion that it would return

          Was his originally.

          Source

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dunno about seeing it without bino's, but I am SO glad I have $1500 image stabilised binos so I could see a fuzzy blob with full sharpness.

    I could even use my imagination a bit and make out the tail.

    So could my son. Unfortunately he thought it was going the opposite way.

    My wife wanted to know why it wasn't moving.....

    1. Jan 0 Silver badge

      Which way does the tail point?

      When I were a lad ('60s), we were told that comet tails pointed towards the sun, because that's the side that's heated so stuff boils off in the direction of the sun. Nowadays the opposite seems to be true. Did we have a different kind of comet back then?

      The good news with this one is that it's going to be brightening until the end of January. I think we may get a clear sky on at least one night before then. Londoners might need to travel a bit more than 62 miles, but Romney Marsh or, Kelling Heath/Weybourne aren't too far away.

      1. Christopher Lane

        Re: Which way does the tail point?

        The tail of a comet always points away from the sun due to it being blown by the solar winds. The direction of the tail with regards to the comet depends on where the comet is in its orbit. As the comet approaches the sun the tail will appear to stream away from the comet. Paradoxically as the comet leaves the sun, going out into outer space, it will appear to approach it's own tail.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

          Re: Which way does the tail point?

          There are actually two tails; some explanation here: TAILS

        2. Joe_H

          Re: Which way does the tail point?

          Depends on which tail you are talking about.

          A trail of dust gets left behind in the comet's orbit forming one tail, and this gets slowly pushed out. Ionised gases that get emitted are affected much more strongly by the sun's magnetic field and these form a tail pointing directly away from the sun.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail

  4. Nya

    Anyone got an answer?

    Ok general curious question on this: "gets its greenish glow from diatomic carbon gas fluorescing in the sun's light" so diatomic carbon gas forms a gas at about 3650C, and this is in deep space which is cold, so what's making it heat up to this temperature considering it's not about to prang into the Sun? Probably missing something here but curious if anyone knows? Thanks.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: Anyone got an answer?

      A dicarbon molecule is blasted off the comet surface by solar radiation. At that point the molecule has a kinetic energy larger than or equal to the mean kinetic energy of a molecule of a container of dicarbon at 3650°C. As this is a "no pressure" environment where kinetic energy is likely to be retained instead of being exchanged with nearby molecules, it will most likely wander off into interplanetary spaces instead of cool off and re-form carbon as it would do in a closed flask in a lab.

      1. Nya

        Re: Anyone got an answer?

        Cheers, was curious on that!

  5. Joe Drunk

    Hooray!!! Crystal clear skies tonight!!!

    Boooo!!!!! It's going to be -11C tonight!

  6. TheRealRoland
    Happy

    Cold is not an excuse. Although you do need to limit your time outside, and make sure you cover any exposed skin. Some preparation beforehand, for instance with stellarium, will help you find it, even in suburban skies near Chicago.

    -4 Fahrenheit last night :-( but I did manage to spot it, twice :-)

    Too lazy to convert, but around -15 -20 Celsius.

    1. Joe Drunk

      No, I did not brave the cold nor did I want to drive 90 minutes away from the light pollution to get a glimpse of this comet with binoculars. The NFL divisional playoffs were on TV that night along with some good NCAA basketball matches. Myself and some buddies finished off what was left of a case of Bass Ale left over from Christmas over pizza.

      There'll be other comets. Will there be other comets + clear skies? Let me put it this way..the last astronomical event I witnessed was the 2003 Leonid Meteor Shower.

      Thanks for the Stellarium tip. I didn't know comets and other astronomical objects could be manually added and tracked. Neat.

  7. Tom 7

    Northern stargazers?

    Look south not north!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ear worm...

    Why am I singing the Lovejoy theme tune to myself now?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOigEtwIaxE

    1. breakfast Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Ear worm...

      I was noticing the absence of Comet Tink and Comet Eric.

  9. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    I have spotted it with binoculars and with small telescopes in the last couple of clear night (including tonight). Even managed to snap an image before clouds rushed in. Weather forecast not good for the coming days

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like