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

From: Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:18:28 -0500
Message-ID: <00ad01c7378a$a99b72e0$6402a8c0_at_Dell>

GREAT NEWS. PREDICTABLE IF YOU'D SEEN IT!!
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 9:31 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Comet McNaught Is Now A DAYLUGHT COMET!


> 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
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Sat 13 Jan 2007 10:18:28 PM PST