What Comet is in Tonight's Night Sky? (solved)

There is a very bright comet with a large tail in the sky tonight over South Florida. Does anyone know what comet this is? It's almost directly overhead, when I'm looking in the North Western sky.

Is this still Comet Holmes? It seems to be moving fairly quickly...

any help would be appreciated.

it's my first sighting of a comet and we're all excited to know what it is..

I tried to take pictures but none of them came out


UPDATE: thanks to all who contributed

NOT A COMET
Tonight, sky watchers from England to Florida to Canada witnessed a new exploding comet--or so it seemed. "It looked like Comet Holmes!" says Alvaro Garay of Casselberry, Florida. Chris Schierer of Cazenovia, New York, saw the same thing and "wondered how such a bright naked-eye comet could have been missed."

[edit on 12-10-2007 by worldwatcher]

It looks like it's still Holmes.

Here's a great page for that kind of thing.

www.spaceweather.com...

get out of here!!!! I thought Holmes had gone from view. The last I looked at Holmes, it was barely visible to the naked eye. This one is extremely bright and moving "fast". It's already higher in the sky from the last time I looked.

Maybe a meteor and not a comet??

reply to post by worldwatcher



Thnaks for the head up.

Do you still see it? I just went out and looked. It is kind of cloudy. When the clouds clear I can see some stars that look elongated. I think it is some kind of haze effect or something. As if I look long enough they end up just looking like stars. Don't mean to be a party pooper. Going to go look again.

It's still visible but moving from a general western to eastern direction.

It's covered quite a bit of distance in the sky.. so now I'm thinking meteor instead of comet.

is there a meteor shower that we're in now?

Meteors flash by extremely fast and then disappear. And there would be a lot of them flashing by all over the place. It wouldn't just be one that was staying around for a long time.

well according to various sites on the web, the Geminids Meteor Shower happens around December 14th. But I can't find anything on a comet that would be visible now.

There's a picture on spaceweather.com that was taken last night of Holmes. It's the ONLY comet in the sky. There is no way that a meteor is going to linger for longer than a split second or two before it disappears.

Still way too cloudy in West Palm to see much. I'll keep looking though.

I searched as well and could find nothing. Holmes is suppose to be gone and use to be visible in the northeast skies. You said this is in the northwest. I hope it is not Holmes sneaking around from behind for a surprise visit

Just checked again and It's gone!!! I lost it and cannot find it anywhere in the night sky.

So I guess that answers my question...meteor

it was just so bright and had a huge tail coming off it... myself, my two boys, and two of my neighbors all saw it, hope there were others who witnessed this too...

Comet Holmes 5 days ago.
apod.nasa.gov...

4 days ago.
www.perezmedia.net...

Last night.
www.spaceweather.com...

Comet Tuttle is coming, but it won't be visible to the naked eye until very late in December or even early January.

Thats a bummer I live in sw Florida also but I just read your post.

Ill keep checkin just in case.

zaphod, I don't think this was Holmes, how could it have gotten so brighter and picked up speed? Also this came from a different direction from where I was seeing Holmes. I've also seen the ISS before and this nothing like it... this had a "tail" and looked liked This

also remember I'm in an urban area, lots of street lights and such and this was very visible, I'm even going to say it was brighter than when I saw Holmes last month.

[edit on 12-10-2007 by worldwatcher]

This sound's interesting so i decided to flag and star it.

I hope you can find out exactly what it is you saw sound's odd and by the way you explained it close and large and fast moving.

Lets see what come's of this.

Regard's
Lee

Ohh and i almost forgot to add.

Are there any military bases in your area that might b doing missile or rocket testing ?

Regard's
Lee

reply to post by worldwatcher


If it was the same object that stayed for several hours, or even several minutes then there was no way that it was a meteor. Meteors are seen as they enter the atmosphere and burn up. That's the only time we see them. There is no way that one could stay visible like that for so long. The only other thing that it could have been was a comet, and Holmes is the only comet up there right now that's visible.

I'm going to say that it was visible for about 30 minutes or so. I noticed it outside while talking to the neighbors, called my kids, we all looked it and then I came inside and started this thread. I don't know if it was visible before because I wasn't outside... and now it's completely gone!!!

I'm trying to upload my pics and see if I can lighten them at all to see anything, but on the camera, they showed up completely black.

reply to post by worldwatcher

My cousin once told me he saw a comet with a tail move slowly across the sky and disappear. He was not known for his integrity so I questioned his sighting.

However, there are thousands if not more, comets in our solar system. They are all sizes. If a comet was small, fast and close to earth when it passed it could appear like you (and maybe my cousin) described. Kind of just a local phenomen or one you were lucky to observe. I noticed from your 1st to your last post was only a half hour!

Now I have a wierd feeling about my sighting... because I can't find anything to confirm that "something should be out there". Zaphod is right, it's only Comet Holmes that should be around, but I'm convinced this wasn't Holmes.

I looked up a star map and this object was travelling through the Pegasus (Winged Horse) Constellation.

h3akalee, there are military bases all over Florida, but there was no noise with this sighting and it was very high, so I don't know about the rocket theory.

I got a call from my brother that there was something in the sky tonight, he was asking if it was a comet. I went outside, and looked up and sure enough there was a bight cloud almost straight up, here in Tampa. I don’t think it was a comet though, because it went by too fast and supposedly changed shape. Earlier in the evening I noticed a contrail over toward NASA, and I figured maybe the shuttle lifted off. I found out that it did not lift off today, but I suspect that they might have launched another rocket, and the cloud was the remains of that rocket launch. I have to head off to work now, and I don’t have time to check into it, but maybe someone else can.