Most of you know that there’s a big comet called Pan-STARRS that is now visible in many places. According to Wired Science, which has three videos, the comet was discovered in 2011:
Pan-STARRS first peeked over the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere on Mar. 7 but shortly thereafter it disappeared when it went too close to the sun. Since Mar. 11, though, it has reappeared each night in the west a bit after sunset for a short time. Particularly stunning views came on the evening of Mar. 12, when the comet flew near the thin crescent moon. The object will continue to shine, getting fainter and fainter, through the end of the month.
I’ve embedded a lovely time-lapse video of the comet, given by Wired with this commentary:
The top time-lapse comes from photographer Dan Finnerty of California and shows the soaring comet and crescent moon setting over the Verdugo Hills near Los Angeles.
Reader Ben Goren also sent a photograph of Pan-STARRS and the crescent moon that he took the other day near the Grand Canyon in Arizona (he promises more pictures to come):
If you missed Pan-STARRS, no worries! Wired adds:
Because it is Spring, many viewers were blocked by clouds but there may be an even better chance to see a great comet in November when comet ISON appears. ISON will potentially be bright enough to see during the day.
h/t: Matthew Cobb
Nice picture, Ben!
+1
Congratulations to Dan Finnerty and Ben Goren for spectacular camera work!
With which camera and settings did you shoot this, Ben?
Reblogged this on myatheistlife and commented:
I miss all the cool stuff !!@@RQ@#$%@%$$%$^$%^&^@
Beautiful picture Ben.
I was able to spot it with my binoculars on one clear evening we got this week near Boston MA. It looked good.
Amazing image Ben. Thanks for sharing
If you’re named Harold & Anglo-Saxon you’d better watch out!
Great pic Ben ~ how much “post production” involved?
I rarely regret living in a mountainous area, but this is one of those times – I miss the horizon. There are the times in late summer when the meteor showers are not visible and throughout the year the sun rises an hour later and sets an hour earlier than for people on the flat-lands, but we chose to retire here so on our heads be it be it, but it still rankles from time to time – like NOW !!
Saw it last week, from a height (Wright’s Hill) to the west of Wellington. My pictures are only with an ordinary camera (Olympus SP-310) in telephoto on a tripod.
Looking forward to ISON. But the thing is comets are noted for being unpredictable for how bright they will be.
Thanks, guys!
In answer to the questions…I took this shot with the 5DIII mounted to the 400mm f/2.8. It’s a one second exposure shot wide open at ISO 6,400. Post-processing is minimal…consider it a draft.
I’ve since learned that both Mars and Uranus were above the horizon at the same time the comet was visible, so I’ll be paying attention to see if I captured them in an earlier frame. And on Wednesday I was at the Snowbowl just outside Flagstaff, where I did a bit of experimentation and also took some photos of the night sky.
Might be a little while before I can get to all the editing…I’m even farther behind on a couple projects as a result of playing hooky. But I promise, I will wrap everything up with a nice little bow and send it to Jerry!
Cheers,
b&
That is one fantastic photo.
Ben: That is a totally awesome photo. Really well done! Technically and artistically.
I was looking at that moon through fleeting clouds and spits of snow. My son said, Dad, we should take a photo of that (never mind that it was bed time!); but I just wasn’t up for hauling the gear into the snow for an unlikely possible shot. AZ has better night sky viewing than MN!
Im fascinated by comets, and tried hard to get a glimpse of this one, but no luck.
Glad I can enjoy the photos.
Just superb, Ben!
Reblogged this on suzzeq's Blog.
Yesterday I went out to see the comet. Didn’t see it in the west but found an object just east of south that I thought was it. However, looking on the internet it shows that the comet is still to be seen in the west. From Ben’s picture (beautiful Ben!) it looks like my view would probably have been obstructed by a low mountain range to the west.
I have a fuzzy vehicle door supported hand held picture of the object I saw and would like to find out what it is but have no idea how to do that. The object was mostly white with flashes of red, orange, and blue like it might look if it was being heated. The object stayed in the same place in relation to the stars as I drove about 30 miles to the east over maybe 40 minutes. The picture of the object shows it as being oblong (some due to being a hand held shot), the binoculars showed it to be slightly oblong as well. There was some cloudiness to the south at sunset so I’m not going to try to find it tonight. Damned christian jesus christ gods anyway. In case anyone is thinking UFO, I’m not.
What time of night? How high in the sky?
I first saw it when the stars were appearing after sunset maybe 7:30ish, the last time I looked was maybe 9:30ish. It was about 30 degrees above the fairly flat horizon in southern New Mexico. I thought it was the pan-STARRS comet so wasn’t expecting to need any accurate locating data. I’ll report if I see it again when it looks cloudless in that direction, I have to drive a few miles to get to a decent viewing location.
Probably Jupiter.
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury
If so, have a look through binoculars–you should be able to see some of its moons. 🙂
Thanks for your interest it is much appreciated.
Jupiter would be too high and on the west side near Pleiades and the moon, this object was very much south. I would be surprised if the object I saw was a planet it definitely had different bursts of color associated with it.
Using this jpg chart or the pdf the object I saw would have been near pyxis, I think, at the southern part of the milky way.
Looks like something not on the ecliptic, then. Sure it wasn’t Sirius? 🙂
Anything lowish in the sky can appear to have chromatic aberrations due to atmospheric interference…
Yes, maybe Sirius with chromatic aberrations. It was definitely brighter than anything else in the area. Its setting up to be another cloudy evening here so I’m going to have to wait maybe a few days to have a chance to confirm. Thanks for your help Diane!
The president of my astronomy society used to say he’d get a few calls each season when Sirius began to appear early in the evening. It really does stand out!
I know you could find this yourself, but there’s lots of interesting tidbits here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
I got a good look at it on Tuesday with 10x binoculars, but I probably couldn’t have found it without the new moon as a guide. The next night I got just a fleeting glimpse. I’m on a hilltop in coastal Southern California, and for once the weather was cooperating.