The info I've decifered from spaceweather.com and nasa.gov says it will be a 4th magnitude object and visible the first week or two of May. A 4th magnitude means it is visible to the naked eye in a dark sky away from city lights. After the middle of May we 'may' have an increased chance of a meteor shower. If all goes well it will spectacular, if it goes too well we may be impacted by Hummer size pieces of ice.

Im going to the Florida Keys in hopes of seeing a spectacular meteor shower.

Escrotumus,

Kudos on your image!
I was observing last night with binoculars.


Had to wait until about 3am, for it to move out of the skyglow too.
You're right about naked eye visibility, only in perfect circumstances., so far.

Look forward to your next images.

Space

P.S.
I was looking at your image again. I think the fact that it's a little out of focus actually enhances the photo. The stars almost look spherical, like they really are.
And comets, well, pretty hard tell tell if they are in focus or not!
Are you going to post more?



[edit on 2-5-2006 by spacedoubt]

Yeah man, thanks a million for those images Escrotumus. Thats awesome that you can share that with all of us.

I didn't move the thread, but I can see why they did. The focus of the thread is not Space Exploration, which this forum's focus is. The focus of the thread is the Face of Christ, which would fall under the foucs of the Faith, Spirituality & Theology forum.

In the future, please refrain from trying to incite drama on the boards by posting messages such as yours. If you have a problem talk directly with the staff member who moved the thread or click the suggestion button and let the entire staff hear about it.

Thank you.

Didn't mean to incite drama just posting a find that was really interesting about the vicinity of the COMET. Next time I'll present finds in a more scientific way and keep the personal story to myself. I didn't know excitement was forbidden on this board.

Im not going to get any more magnified images of this comet because my mount is being serviced by the manufacturer I wanted to get a shot of the b fragment but my mount will be out for at least 2 weeks and the comet rises later and later as it approaches earth and work comes very early for me From the latest emphemeris it looks to me that this comet will only reach mag 6.5 which would only be visible naked eye from a very remote and dark place. Ive only been to 2 places where it was that dark: sequoia natl forest in cali, and an astronomy resort in northern new mexico. For the rest of us city and suburb dwellers youll have to be content with binocs or a small refractor.

If you want to see it this friday or saturday from your location then around midnight look to your east and find the very brightest star which will be vega. Aim your binocs at vega and you should just be able to see a blurry light in the same FOV as vega at a bit to the right. If not then scan your binocs a bit up and to the southeast (right of vega) and you should see it there on friday night. It will be a bit below and to the southeast (right of vega) on saturday night. The comet is magnitude 7 this weekend which is well within reach of a pair of 10x binos in suburbia. The moon should be getting low to the west so hopefully there wont be too much moonlight masking the comet.

I may try to do a nice wide angle shot of the b and c fragments with a 50mm lens this weekend if its clear on my alt/az mount but without my equatorial tracking mount the stars will be trailed somewhat. I am going to try to get both fragments into the field of view but that might be a stretch even with my 18mm wide angle lens....we will see.

So when will we if at all be able to see it clearly with the naked eye?

for all intents and purposes you wont see it naked eye unless you live somewhere very very dark away from a city. the best time to see it naked eye though if you are lucky to live somewhere dark is from may 10-15th after 2am due east about 30-40 degrees up from the horizon.

Originally posted by pacman
Didn't Nasa first claim 5 million miles, then now saying within our atmosphere (under 10,000 miles).

Huh?

From your source:

Here, we propose to observe a magnitude 1 comet, 73P/SW 3, the brightest comet of the decade during May 2006 within only 0.08 AU of the earth

0.08 AU is about 7,440,000 miles.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by pacman
Didn't Nasa first claim 5 million miles, then now saying within our atmosphere (under 10,000 miles).

Huh?

From your source:

Here, we propose to observe a magnitude 1 comet, 73P/SW 3, the brightest comet of the decade during May 2006 within only 0.08 AU of the earth

0.08 AU is about 7,440,000 miles.

hey there cmdrkeenkid,

There you go again with a round about figure lol

I won't do the calculation here for fear of beeing challenged lol hehe (Joking)

Seriously though can you now see where I was coming from on my earlier post...

I wonder if (and I hope nothing does make it down here) anything did make it through Regenmacher would be willing to apologies for being a bit of a melon farmer lol

Object

73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BD
2006-May-11

21:53 ± 11:11

0.00010 AU

Anyone for tennis??? lol

Anyways, All the best

NeoN HaZe.

[edit on 4-5-2006 by Neon Haze]

Man on 05/11 at 11:11...
I cannot even begin to imagine the #storm that is going to start on the web…
Not to mention this site...





[edit on 5/5/2006 by defcon5]

Maybe I'm imaging things but I could have sworn that the minimum distance was .4 LD, but it's now showing 0.04 LD for a min. miss distance. I'll just chalk it up as seeing things on Friday, but 0.04 LD! That's close. Somewhere betwenn 8 and 9 thousand miles. I'm still laughing at the spread between the minimum and nominal distance. It's over 7 million miles. That's a big margin for an organization that's supposed to be the experts on space travel.

"It will be more than 7 million miles away. (Give or take 7 million miles)"

The longshot and least likely distance is 0.00010 AU.

Odds: N-sigma of 3 means a 99.7% chance the true miss distance will be greater than the minimum miss distance.

The most likely is the Nominal Miss Distance at 33.7 LD/0.0867 AU. Give them some more time to get a fix on 3-BD and that wide variance will narrow.

Signed, your friendly melon farmer....





[edit on 5-5-2006 by Regenmacher]

Forgive me. I'm simple when it comes to this stuff...but I've read the thread three times completely, and I'm utterly lost. My checkbook balances, but on the rare occasion it doesn't, I'm not $7,000,000 off...

What is the issue that NASA can't come up with a more precise miss/hit than what I think I'm reading here (and the links, for me, are more confusing than this thread...). What are the variables that come into play? Solar flares, for example?

Can someone clarify for me why the drastic differences are there? Use simple words, please...

Thanks in advance,
Aimless

What are the odds?

I was viewing the comet last night (early morn actually).
I was using Binoculars..but it was close to naked eye, after my night vison adjusted.
While watching the fuzzy patch , just a little East Of Hercules, a golden colored Meteor
crossed right though my Binoculars field of view..Awsome, but nearly blinding! LOL.

I could see the plasma trail fade away...it was much more interesting than the comet.

But really, What are the odds? I guess it was my lucky night.
In case anyone else in the High desert out west might have seen it..It travled pretty much North to South. It must have been pretty bright for a naked eye observer.
I only saw it through the binoculars..

If by remote chance we DO get something serious from this comet.... when is the earliest it'll happen? Actually on the 25th?

The reason I ask is because while it seems like this thing will likely not pose a threat, I want to be prepared. I plan on going out and buying some bulk water and food, just in case. I'm not that knowledgeable about comets and comet-impact scenarios. I don't know what to expect form this thing so I'm making ready while I still can. Better safe than sorry. Anyways, do we have until the 25th?