Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4)

Hi All...

We all know by now about Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) and we're eagerly waiting to watch it as it brightens up on it's approach to perihelion on 29 November 2013. It's predicted to reach Mag -16 which should make it a daylight object. Having said that, it's notoriously difficult to predict cometary brightness. Just look at Comet Kohoutec in 1973. It was a bit of a fizzler but it did, just about, reach naked eye visibility. David Levy said "Comets are like cats - they both have tails and they both do what they want." Even if ISON follows the same light curve as Kohoutec it should still make for a great show. It would be even better if ISON was to drop some debris in the right place for us to enjoy another regular meteor shower.

However let's not forget Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) which is supposed to be another show-stopper in March 2013. We've got the chance to see two once-in-a-lifetime comets in less than a year.

I suppose there'll be a run on cooking foil in the shops as the the tinfoil hat brigade get themselves all agitated and predict all kinds of doom amd gloom, ET visits and abductions, end of world scenarios, second comings and all that sort of stuff. Heaven knows what the Scientologists will get up to.

Clear skies and bye for now

Malc

Ha Ha good one mate,i call them scaremongers,dont know what to look at dont know what is what and probably cant tell a Planet from a football.They are people who lead boring lives and like to attempt to put the spanner in the works for people like us.But i can live with that mate no problem.

Duane.