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Comet Machholz Now Visible to Naked Eye

Posted by timothy on from the does-not-apply-to-heavy-glasses-wearers dept.

An anonymous reader submits "A comet discovered only this summer is brightening quickly and already visible to the unaided eye. Comet Macholz should be visible to the unaided eye until late January. On the night of January 7 - 8, it will sail about 2 degrees (4 Moon widths) to the west of the easily recognisable Pleiades star cluster, often known as the Seven Sisters. It will be at its closest to Earth Jan. 5-6, 2005, when it will be 32 million miles away." (Mentioned a few days ago, too.)

8 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. It's all over now. by Mish · · Score: 2, Funny
    A comet discovered only this summer is brightening quickly and already visible to the unaided eye. Comet Macholz should be visible to the unaided eye until late January...
    ...At which point it'll impact the earth and no-longer be visable? ;)
    1. Re:It's all over now. by Tersevs · · Score: 3, Informative

      Where's Bruce Willis when you need him? :-)

      BTW: It's discoverer tells the tale of how it was found here. Amazing what you can do with a telescope that the parents bought for Christmas 1968.

  2. Re:Obligatory by DiSKiLLeR · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm looking at Starry Night.

    Its visible about 20 degrees in the sky to the north, after 10:30pm adelaide time.

    I went to see it 2 days ago (after the first slashdot story) but it was cloudy... and its cloudy every damn day.

    I suggest you drive up north up port wakefield road somewhere to get away from the city lights to somewhere real dark to try and look, but only if the weather cooperates.

    In a few days time you won't see it at all as it won't appear above the horizon at all for us southern hemisphere observers. Northen hemisphere observers are in for a real treat I think.

    D.

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  3. Darn useless NASA by Yeechang+Lee · · Score: 2, Funny

    What good are all those billions we spend for NASA's budget, when we don't even have a single hydrogen bomb-carrying spaceship? Can we trust the Space Administration to be able to dig up even a single team of expert oil drillers to blow up Machholz once it's inevitably revealed as the Texas-sized planet killer it surely is? I think not.

    1. Re:Darn useless NASA by fm6 · · Score: 2, Funny

      If we spent as much money on space exploration as we spent on lame-ass movies, everbody would own a comet by now!

  4. Naked Eye by Captain+Chad · · Score: 2, Informative

    From one of the articles: "In binoculars, look for an object that is fuzzy compared with the much more distant stars."

    This doesn't really meet my definition of "naked eye." I guess I was expecting something like the Hale-Bopp comet which was easily visible to the unaided, naked eye. This one appears to be much farther away.

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    1. Re:Naked Eye by fvbommel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From the same article: "It should be visible to the unaided eye until late January..."

      I think what they meant was it will be visible to the naked eye, but if you look at it through binoculars it will be fuzzy compared to the stars.

  5. Re:Obligatory by thegrassyknowl · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Blasted clouds... well, I'm off to invent some kind of cloud transparent making machine.

    I haven't seen anything that says this baby should be seen in Adelaide (or the southern hemisphere at all). I wish it wasn't so cloudy... I'd head out and have a look.

    Whatever you do, don't turn left just before Pt Wakefield (heading north) .. there is some sort of army proving ground out there and we were hassled by police for even turning down that road to stop and look up late one night.

    A.

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