Comet McNaught Visible in Broad Daylight

AbsoluteXyro writes "As the amateur astronomers among us already know, Comet McNaught has been gracing the early morning and late evening skies... as it approaches the Sun, some estimate it has the potential to become 40 times brighter than Venus, or a magnitude of -8.8! In fact, it has recently been reported at SpaceWeather.com that Comet McNaught is now visible in broad daylight! From the article: "It's fantastic," reports Wayne Winch of Bishop, California. "I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can even see the tail.""

Comments

BINOCULARS WARNING - don't use in daytime

[jamie]

This may sound obvious, but DO NOT use binoculars during the day to look at objects near the sun. One slip and you get instant, permanent, crippling eye damage.

The linked stories do talk about binoculars, but they were written for looking at the comet after sunset.

Got a picture!

[Karellen !-P]

I was able to take a pretty crappy shot of her yesterday at dusk. Unfortunately I didn't hear about that comet until it was too low on the horizon to get anything decent...or to get my hands on a decent zoom lense.

Too late - get south of the equator...

[Animaether]

http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5133461 .html

"If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, January 12th is your last good opportunity to catch Comet McNaught in the evening twilight -- though January 13th isn't completely out of the question. After that, Comet McNaught will become a target for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, as shown below."

Today is January 14th.

Re:Too late - get south of the equator...

[Mard]

The comet is visible in DAYLIGHT from any hemisphere, because the sun is visible FROM BOTH HALVES OF THE EARTH. C'mon, this is basic geometry. Go outside, block the sun with the shadow from a building, and look about 5 degrees (a fist's width at arm's length) to the east of the Sun (northern hemisphere, this is to your left when looking towards the sun). If the sun is clear, you should see it in a moment or two.

I saw it! In broad daylight!

[The Bad Astronomer]

I can confirm this: I just saw the comet at 10:30 a.m. local time Sunday morning! Incredible. In all my years as an astronomer I have never seen anything like this. Using my binoculars I could easily spot it 5 degrees from the Sun. I'm trying to get video now, but it's so close it will be difficult. I made a videoblog about this the other day. I'll have to update it now!

Re:The most interesting question now is:

[pedestrian crossing]

I don't know if you are joking, but it isn't going to hit the sun. It orbits the sun. From our point of view on earth, it will disappear behind the sun, then re-appear on the other side of the sun.