Comet ISON is coming! How do we find it?

We’re nearing the time that we might be able to see Comet ISON whizzing through the night sky. I’m reliably informed that over the next week or so we should, on a clear night, be able to start looking for the comet with the use of a telescope or even a simple pair of binoculars. I’m no astronomer so I’ll be using my trusty binoculars and trying to hold still enough to spot the comet. All we need now is some clear night skies and somewhere with little light pollution! I hear in the UK we have a big storm headed our way next week so I don’t think that’ll be a good time to look!

Some lucky people have already spotted ISON and here’s a blog that discusses some of the beautiful images they’ve obtained so far.

So, how do we find ISON if we aren’t quite as nifty as some of these astronomy-types? Well it’s already passed Mars very closely on October 1st and some grainy images were obtained by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera. On Earth I hear that in late October ISON’s proximity to the Sun in our skies will make it very hard to view, but as we move into November we hope that ISON really comes into its own. The beginning of November sees the comet appear between Leo and Virgo. I would suggest getting one of the smartphone apps for finding these star systems if you don’t have a clue where to start. Again, I’m no expert on stars so this is what I have to do. Towards the end of November it starts heading towards the Sun again so will be hard to observe (and obviosuly don’t try looking at the Sun with a pair of binoculars!!). Perihelion (when the comet is closest to the Sun) occurs on November 28th so it’s fingers crossed that day that ISON doesn’t disintegrate!

Going into December we enter a bit of a ‘wait and see’ situation depending on how ISON reacted to the Sun at perihelion. I’ll post something in December depending on the outcome, but December 26-27th is when ISON would be thought to pass closest to Earth so if you’re bored with the Christmas TV then this is hopefully a good time to see the comet of the century!

As a cosmochemist I’m not the best qualified to speak about star gazing but I like to give it a go all the same, so here is a link to the Armagh Planetarium advice on how to find ISON if you don’t trust my advice.

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