A New Light In Our Sky?

I live in Waikato and can see it clearly at about midnight NE direction it glimers like orangey, reddy, then white like a jewel lol...will bust out the telescope tonight...

The comet is geting brighter because the earth is coming between it and the sun, hence the apparent 'no-tail'. I predict that it will be at it's brightest at the beginning of December.

Contrary to the sensationalist storys, the comet is moving away from the earth. It takes about seven years to orbit the sun and at its furthest, is roughly as far away as Jupiter. It is currently more than 1.5 times further away from earth, than the sun.

I think that the ('mysterious') case is closed, if you take some time to study its orbit.

Here - 17P/Holmes orbit diagram

Still cool though.

Here' a couple of pics to get a better idea:






[edit on 31-10-2007 by Xeros]

another interesting note, earth is actually gaining on the comet (catching up to it). Earth continues to get closer until Nov. (6th 1.62 AU) Then we start to pull further away.

reply to post by Xeros

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How is knowing it's orbit solving the 'mystery' of how it's magnitude changed so dramatically and how it's size has so drastically changed?

For those people who aren't sure whether they can see it or not, if you have the latest version of google Earth installed (4.2) it has a sky map button that will switch from ground view to sky view so just find your location on the ground and switch to sky view and all the stars, planets, galaxies etc. are searchable from your position.

[edit on 31-10-2007 by quber]

Its tail is more and more facing away from us, as it beomes perpendicular to the sun, in relation to the earths orbit. This creates the illusion that it's getting larger.



*Bold added by me*

Hope that helps.

Basically, as we move (in our own orbit) between the comet and the sun, the comets tail seems to disappear, when all it's doing, is ejecting in the opposite direction to the sun, due to the radiant heat. This makes it appear to get brighter, as the light is also refracted.

[edit on 31-10-2007 by Xeros]

hey yo thats not looking very god to me, i imagine if its a commet and we cant see the tail that it probably aimed at us. or maybe its the star of betlaham things are probably gona get interesting i'd watch to see what the church does. and if nasa did make it light up well i can only imagine that the missing nukem might have something to do with it.

this is all very speculative of me but take it for what is worth

reply to post by stingray

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I completely agree. I was looking for it tonight and I seriously could not spot it. I couldn't find it star hopping, or by naked eye.
I live in san diego, ca (more over, lemon grove area) and It was extremeley difficult for me to spot.

anyone else having difficulties last night?

Jupiter is 4-5 times further away at present. This comets diameter is 3.42 kms. The radiant light is from its tail/ejecta.

[edit on 31-10-2007 by Xeros]

The "tail" of a comment always points away from the Sun, it is not the same as a "vapour" trail that may be left by an object passing through the Earth's atmosphere.

In *theory*, this means the tail could point directly away from the Earth, simplistically indicating that the comet is heading toward the Earth, HOWEVER, this is only apparent because the Earth is between the comet and the Sun.

Excuse the quality of the diagram below, but this illustrates the point:

Sun Earth Comet & Tail
* O @===
<-- Perceived direction of travel
--> Actual direction of travel

I hope the picture is clear enough, I am sure that somebody can provide a good link to a site explaining how the tail streams away from the Sun.

reply to post by SugarCube

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Exactly. I did try to explain this in my earlier posts.

reply to post by Vikturtle

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all these theories are patently absurd since this specific comet has a history of doing the exact same thing... the last time it did it (brightened dramatically) was in the 80's.

In fact it was such an eruption in brightness in 1882 that led to its discovery in the first place.

www.skyandtelescope.com...

I swear there are some really over active imaginations out there.



[edit on 31-10-2007 by grover]

The tail facing away from us won't create an illusion that it is getting larger as it 'Suddenly' got larger and brighter not steadily got larger and brighter as it would have done if it was the tail gently moving to point away from us. It also won't explain why its brightness suddenly increased a million fold.

As for it being a 'mystery' Professor Alan Fitzsimmons says it is a once in a lifetime event bbc.com

reply to post by grover

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Actually the last time it brightened was 1892, when it was discovered by Holmes and no one knows how bright it actually got back then. If it didn't brighten it is so small it may have never been discovered.

I agree these theories are absurd and the comet is no threat, but it still a big deal because I don't think any other comet has brightened by a million times. I still think it was hit by an asteroid, but who knows.

I've heard they are going to task Hubble to take some photos. Then maybe we will know what happened.

Out of curiosity has anyone here actually seen this object? I was hoping for clear skies last evening and there was just enough cloud cover to the NE to prevent seeing any stars much less this comet/object. I have inquired at other boards as well and no one can truthfully say they have seen it.
Now, what does this all mean if the average person can't view it. I understand that it was first brought to "light" (no pun intended) by an Iranian Astronomer. Everywhere you look, folks are saying it is visable with the naked eye and a small telescope or binoculars really brings it in. I have yet to find one person on any of these boards that has actually spied it. Someone ask the question if SpaceWeather .com would play a prank on the public and the answer was NO...but when you look at the latest images of this object it has taken on a sorta "face" look...almost like the "face" on Mars. Now I know that has a kooky sound to it but that is the way I see it and it does set the mind to "wandering" (Neil Young).
Something tell me that everything is not kosher with this whole incident and I definately don't want to go the conspriacy route but its just very strange....

reply to post by Wired

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Well obviously you missed my post here and this post here.

Maybe the reason you haven't read about anyone actually seeing the object is because your not actually reading the posts?



[edit on 10/31/2007 by Hal9000]

reply to post by Wired

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Yes. I have seen it everynight since it cleared up here on Saturday. It is viewable with only the naked eye, but looks like any other star, but with binoculars the difference becomes clear.

My dad showed it to me. I saw it with binoculars. It looked like a small planet or a very dim star (which probably doesn't happen but anyway). Just perfectly round and dimly orange. It was barely big enough to make out it's shape. I would never have found it if he didn't point it out... so good luck if you don't do much astronomy.

Could this be the ball of redemption?????

www.roses.org...

reply to post by dgtempe

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Well DG since the photo at the start of that page looks an awful lot like someone accidentally got their finger on the lens, I would have to doubt the credibility of that site.


As to the comet itself, good topic, neat event, and some really good posts in this thread so far.

reply to post by Wired

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This is a photo I took of it a few nights back (view is looking NE, early evening - you can just make out the Pleiades rising on the horizon to the right of the building)



There are much better pictures on my website in this thread