Posted on 07/16/2015 1:10:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Call it the comet that squeaked by most northern skywatchers. Comet C/2014 Q1 PanSTARRS barely made an appearance at dawn in mid-June when it crept a few degrees above the northeastern horizon at dawn. Only a few determined comet watchers spotted the creature.
Two weeks later in early July it slipped into the evening and brightened to magnitude +4. But decreasing elongation from the Sun and bright twilight made it virtually impossible to see. Now its returned with three tails!
After taunting northerners, its finally come out of hiding, climbing into the western sky during evening twilight for observers at low and southern latitudes. C/2014 Q1 peaked at about 3rd magnitude at perihelion on July 6, when it missed the Sun by just 28 million miles (45 million km). The comet is now on a collision course with the Venus-Jupiter planet pair. Not a real collision, but the three will all be within about 7° of each other from July 21 to about the 24th. A pair of wide-field binoculars will catch all three in the same view.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
ping
Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.
Bump. Thanks! I’ll be watching. Took some great shots of the Venus/Jupiter/Moon a few weeks back. :)
Thanks. I might go out and try to see it.
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