Astronomy Picture of the Day -- ISON, Mars, Regulus

NASA ^ | October 17, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: In order top to bottom this celestial snapshot features Comet ISON, planet Mars, and Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo, in the same frame. The scene spans about 2 degrees near the eastern horizon in early morning skies of October 15. Closest of the three, the much heralded Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) is by far the faintest at 14 light-minutes (1.7 AU) away. Mars is only slightly farther from our fair planet. About 16.5 light minutes (2 AU) away its normal ruddy color is washed out in the exposure. Regulus outshines both comet and planet from a distance of 75 light-years. Just above Regulus, the very faint smudge of light is actually the Leo I dwarf galaxy, 800,000 light-years away and almost lost in the glare of the bluish hued bright star. Comet ISON is expected to grow brighter, though. How bright is still not clear, but not as bright as a Full Moon in night skies. Estimated to be 1 to 4 kilometers in diameter, ISON's nucleus might substantially survive its very close encounter with the Sun on November 28. If so, the comet will climb back above the eastern horizon in planet Earth's northern hemisphere before dawn in early December.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit & Copyright: Pete Lawrence (Digital-Astronomy)]

[SunkenCiv]

How to follow APOD if the US government shuts down. · Temporary EZ-post.

Looks like the "real" one is back up, and retroactively.

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[West Texas Chuck]

Now that the government has ROARED back to life, APOD has returned.

Can you believe Obamalamadingdong turned off APOD but left his wife’s site up? Bat rastid that he is.

[Impy]

That mothertrucking icehole.

[dr_lew]

Here's the insanely optimistic representation of ISON for the morning of Oct 15 in my Starry Night software. They did they same thing for Panstarrs, which I did barely manage to see. ( I rotated the image using paint.net, and added the oval cropping. )