[meteorite-list] Comet McNaught Is Now A DAYLUGHT COMET!

[Sterling K. Webb]

http://spaceweather.com/

    "Comet McNaught is now visible in broad 
daylight. 'It's fantastic,' reports Wayne Winch 
of Bishop, California. 'I put the sun behind a 
neighbor's house to block the glare and the 
comet popped right into view.  You can even 
see the tail!'
    Just hours ago, Mark Vornhusen took this 
picture of the comet between clouds over 
Gais, Switzerland <photo>
    This weekend is a special time for Comet 
McNaught because it is passing close to the sun. 
Solar heat is causing the comet to vaporize 
furiously and brighten to daylight visibility. At 
magnitude -4 to -5, McNaught is the brightest 
comet since Ikeya-Seki in 1965. 
    The secret to seeing McNaught: Get rid of the 
sun. You can do this by standing in the shadow 
of a tall building or billboard. Make a fist and hold it 
at arm's length. The comet is about one fist-width 
(5 degrees) east of the sun's position. Try it! 
    Warning: Binoculars dramatically improve the 
view of the comet, allowing you to see structure 
within the tail . But please be super-careful not to 
look at the sun. Direct sunlight through binoculars 
can cause permanent eye damage."

    The comet is now as bright or brighter than
Venus, which can usually be seen in the daylight
if you know where to look. A good trick (often
recommended for spotting Venus in daylight) is
to take a small cardboard mailing tube one inch or
more in diameter or the central tube out of a roll 
of paper towels and put it to one eye as if it were 
a telescope (closing the other eye, naturally).

    I would love to give you a first hand description,
but I happen to be in the dead middle of a classic 
midwestern ice storm. Every leaf, branch, twig, 
and blade of grass is sheathed in a centimeter of
ice, and the sky has been a dark grey wooly mass
for two days of perpetual twilight. If the Sun went
supernova, I wouldn't have been able to see it...

    Somewhere the Sun is shining, somewhere the
comet's flying, but there is no joy in Mugville; the
Visible Universe has struck out.


Sterling K. Webb
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