Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) has started to rapidly brighten in pre-dawn skies. This comet has the potential to become as bright as the full moon would be in the daytime sky However, that potential for brightness comes with high risk for the comet itself. ISON is still inbound with a perihelion date of 11-28-13. ISON will pass within one solar diameter of the surface of the Sun but the extreme gravity could pull the comet in if it does not have sufficient mass/speed. It could also break the comet up or it could vaporize the thing. If it survives perihelion it will become an evening object and could become extremely bright. Potentially brighter than Hyukatake or Hale-Bopp.
In the last 48 hours ISON has become a naked eye object but is brightening slower than expected. You can use the chart below to locate it while looking east.
Any pair of binoculars will help you spot it about an hour before Sunrise. It will be very close to Mercury and Saturn which should be easy to spot. You can even see Saturn’s rings in binoculars! ISO will appear to be a fuzzy star with a short tail pointing almost straight up similar to the image below. It might even have a blue-green tint to it. As with everything astronomical, the darker your skies are, the better. It will not look as bright and vivid as this image does.
Mercury will look like a tiny version of the moon in binoculars.
Should ISON survive perihelion it could become the most fantastic object seen in our skies since the 1910 apparition of Halley’s Comet when Earth actually passed through the comets tail.
The advent of digital cameras should make it easy for almost anyone to get some good pictures of ISON.
I_S
Yeah, there are a million sites out there but I figured I need to keep it simple for the monkeys. Visual astronomy is not nearly as easy or simple as it sounds and takes plenty of practice.
The trouble with ISON right now will be light pollution and the fact that it is so low in our sky. When you look straight up you are only looking through roughly 30 miles of atmosphere. Looking towards the horizon you are looking through hundreds of miles of atmosphere which makes a huge difference. Add in smog, smoke, haze etc and getting a good look at objects near the horizon can be tough.
I_S
+1 for the sciency stuff to break up the doom and gloom monotony of existence in this festering hellhole of a country. At least something else in the solar system is also on course for a horrific disaster, culminating in an spectacular fireball that will be talked about for decades to come… just like US.
Regarding the gloom and doom: I expected this to be an article about how close the comet was coming to earth with a chance to hit us. Nice to see that it was just pointing out a fascinating astronomical phenomenon.
This is IT folks! The End of The World, as we know it. Really.
ISON is actually an Alien ship. These pics were taken by Chinese Space Radar! It CLEARLY shows two accompanying objects along with Comet ISON.
[img]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM6L0Gg-p9I&feature=player_detailpage[/img]
Comet Ison DID just pass Mars. So, one possibility is that those two objects are Walmartian Transport Ships carrying Chinese shit throughout the Galaxy, and they are on their way back to resupply.
The other possibility is these are two UFOs hiding with the comet so they won’t be detected by other aliens. These UFOs are escorting the comet to an unknown destination so that the aliens can harvest the valuable minerals it contains.
Lastly, the Mormons may have been right, after all. This could be the Mother Ship coming to take Mitt Romney to his rightful destination, Master of the Universe.
Whatever, this is very serious stuff. You should get laid tonight … it might be your last opportunity.
Those fucken Chinese blocked the video from being embedded!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY_WLCjIbRM
Thanks for the clarification Stuck.
Bob.
OOOHHH, so pretty.
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“Whatever, this is very serious stuff. You should get laid tonight … it might be your last opportunity.” -Stuckles The Great
Way ahead of ya! Got this 20-something chick from my algebra class meeting up with me tonight at the brewery/bar just around the corner from my house… and she lives up in Jax 30 miles away. I love science and mathematics… Rate (of alcohol consumption) X Time (of her driving home) / (Probability of DUI)^2 = Distance (I’ll have to travel to get past Third Base).
There are actually four comets in our skies at this point.
I have heard much speculation that this comet is only the appetizer for the main event.
Which is:
The Blue and Red Kachina from the Prophecies of the Hopi Indians. AKA the tenth (or 12th planet) Planet X aka Niburu. Could this also explain the increase in the fireballs being seen in the sky? Look at the statistics of the increase in the number of meteors reported, especially the multi-state sitings they are increasing substantially over the past couple of years.
The theory is that our solar system is actually a binary system with a brown dwarf star that rotates around Sol our sun every 3600 years and it is coming back soon and is pushing comets and asteroids towards the Earth as it comes back toward the sun.
Very interesting theories, but if you check out the YOWUSA.com site Marshall Masters claims that he has found the Blue Kachina in our sky. If you guys and gals have time you have to check out the vid below, please tell me what YOU think.
I don’t really believe in this stuff, I don’t think that the world is going to end, but what the hell is that in the sky that he is seeing? See the pics taken from the volcana in Costa Rica, WTF!!!!!
MUST WATCH VID – I really want to know what you guys think, maybe someone here can tell me what that object in the sky is?
This guy Marshall seems like an 8th grade science teacher, he doesn’t seem like a fearmonger, and he believes that he is on to something.
Also I am thinking about buying a telescope (used so I can get a deal). I have been doing some research but if anyone has any recommendations please let me know. I don’t want to spend a great deal around $200 or so but I want a decent scope and don’t want to buy used and have it break a week later.
Joel
If you ever seen that show “V”, the hot chick leader is really an alien lizard underneath. Obama is either an alien, or the anti-christ (or maybe both). His masters are coming here to take him back, since he fucked things up beyond repair. He will be tortured for a1000 years in belly of desert alien monster.
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Or it could be God sending an angel of vengeance, vis-a-vis the comet, to rid this planet of liberal progressive socialists and parasites. We can only hope.
AWD – You’re talking about Diana, right? Jane Badler, if I remember right. I really liked the original series when it first aired on CBS, I think. Mid 80’s, aliens, planetary invasions. Good shit for a little kid to watch. The follow-up series back in the 80’s sucked schweddy balls and I just noticed that there’s apparently a new remake with some recycled actors from the Stargate franchise.
@JJ3, Buying a telescope is not as straightforward as you might think but this link should help: http://skyexplorers.com/b4ubuy.htm
There at least 16 comets visible in the sky currently. Five are easily visible in the pre-dawn hours from the northern hemisphere. You will need a good chart for each and at least a little skill to find all five. This is my goto site for comet info: http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/
Comet ISON is is on a hyperbolic trajectory and will be ejected from our solar system if it survives perihelion. Comet Encke on the other had comes around every ten years and is visible in Virgo near ISON now.
As far as the rest of the stuff you posted……to each his own. There are tens in not hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers all over the Earth and damn few of them take any of that “stuff” seriously. As a matter of fact, with the advent of affordable CCD imaging equipment, plus all the pros, I seriously doubt that any part of the sky goes unphotographed on any given night. It’s really too bad that so many spend their time on that kind of “stuff” when there is so much legitimate beauty out there in the sky.
I_S
Speaking astronomics- here’s an excellent lesson in humility, narrated by Carl Sagan. Our own little pale blue dot.
http://www.upworthy.com/the-single-most-mind-altering-photograph-humanity-has-ever-taken
porter’s video from above …. wonderful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=923jxZY2NPI&feature=player_detailpage
Morena Baccarin is pretty damn hot, though I’m not too sure about the short hair look. As far as recent teevee womenz go, Morena ain’t got shit on Olivia Munn…
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Well that pic seems to have annoyed wordpress. WPES… just right click & view image. It’s worth it.
Where’s the boobs?
“I figured I need to keep it simple for the monkeys.”
—-IndenturedServant
I’m just guessing here, but I think I_S just slipped in an insult to TBP’s regular visitors.
IS thanks very much for the tips on telescopes. I appreciate it. I’m just getting started on this stuff and I find the Planet X vids interesting, of course I like to read sci fi and fantasy novels so I realize it’s probably just my imagination getting carried away.
However, the anomolies in Uranus and Neptune’s orbits and the newspaper clipping circa 1983 when NASA stated that they had found something big and then promptly changed their tune intrigues me.
So you think that we are not in a binary system at all, that there is no possibility of it?
The whole asteroid ring between Mars and Jupiter is fascinating as well to speculate that it may have been a planet (our planet) at one time.
Why do people focus on these theories? I honestly don’t know, I have learned a lot from watching them and the corrolation to the biblical stories and to the Kobrin bible I find very interesting.
I have to believe that their are aliens out there, the math alone says it has to be, whether or not they are close by is another question.
Like I said, I watch them with scepticism, but I find his evidence compelling, Marshall Masters that is.
Heard him on coast to coast am Art Bell Dark Matters a couple of times.
Look I sit here and cut and paste all day so I need something to listen to while I do it.
CPA – Cut and Paste Artist – I’m sure admin can attest to that.
JJ3, if you need more advice on buying a scope let me know before you do. I own about 17 different scopes from 1″ up to 14″. I can give advice on buying used as well. I only buy used. Now is a good time to buy used because people are broke and willing to deal. There are some SMOKIN’ deals out there. I’ve seen $2500 scopes go for $500 and they included over $1000 in accessories. I’m not sure where you are but look up your local astronomy club. Chances are they will be holding public comet observing over the next couple weeks and longer if ISON survives.
As far as being in a binary star system goes, astronomers have established conventions to define most astronomical objects and systems. We do not live in a binary system and this is proven via gravity. Think about it, astronomers have the capability to discover planets which are incredibly small compared to their host stars at distances up to 27,000 light years away by looking at the way the star “wobbles” due to the gravitational influences of the planets on the stars. That is akin to observing the gravitational force a grain of rice exerts on an elephant dozens of miles away. I’m rather certain that if our Sun was part of a binary system, we’d know about it.
I do believe that life exists all over the universe. Life could be anything from single cell organisms to sentient life more advanced than we can imagine. Unfortunately, the distances and time scales that characterize our universe virtually precludes the possibility that we will ever encounter life outside our own solar system. Hell, the chances of two life forms in two different solar systems within the same galaxy encountering each other is probably dozens of decimal places to the right of zero. Beyond that, galaxies are like tiny islands separated by distances you cannot even fathom so the chances of encountering extragalactic life becomes even more ridiculous than that the debt of a trillion US governments.
I don’t really begrudge anyone buying into what I consider to be BS when it comes to astronomy but even a casual foray into amateur astronomy will debunk most of that BS. Besides, the provable realities of our universe are more than any single human could absorb in a dozen lifetimes. Wasting time on the BS aspect is pointless IMO. The reality is infinitely more fascinating and fun.
I_S
If it comes in like Hale-bopp I have a few individuals I would like to strap some purple Nikes on and launch them skyward.