It's probably a safe bet most folks reading this blog (all folks?) don't know anything about
the comet that's surprisingly flared up by a factor of nearly a million in the last couple of days. This comet, if I remember right, is heading back on it's way out to Jupiter or Saturn, and was incredibly blah as far as comets go - no tail, no bells, no whistles, nothing. And then suddenly, POW! It brightened up to the point where it could be seen by the naked eye. (Click either of the two pictures, which aren't mine - I can't take credit).
After hearing about this today, I figured I should at least see if I could find it. Just came back in from outside, and I'm seeing spots as if I'd been staring at the sun. Not only is it a full moon right now, but it's also in
perigee, so it's at one of it's closest points in it's offset elliptical orbit around the Earth. That means it appears 14% bigger (and 30% brighter) than full moons we've seen earlier this year, when it was farther away from the Earth. Now I don't figure I can honestly tell that it's closer/bigger, but damn, it sure is BRIGHT out tonite!!!
It's probably a safe bet most folks reading this blog (all folks?) don't know anything about the comet that's surprisingly flared up by a factor of nearly a million in the last couple of days. This comet, if I remember right, is heading back on it's way out to Jupiter or Saturn, and was incredibly blah as far as comets go - no tail, no bells, no whistles, nothing. And then suddenly, POW! It brightened up to the point where it could be seen by the naked eye. (Click either of the two pictures, which aren't mine - I can't take credit).
After hearing about this today, I figured I should at least see if I could find it. Just came back in from outside, and I'm seeing spots as if I'd been staring at the sun. Not only is it a full moon right now, but it's also in perigee, so it's at one of it's closest points in it's offset elliptical orbit around the Earth. That means it appears 14% bigger (and 30% brighter) than full moons we've seen earlier this year, when it was farther away from the Earth. Now I don't figure I can honestly tell that it's closer/bigger, but damn, it sure is BRIGHT out tonite!!!
2 comments:
In this picture - Jeph circled a star and called it something else... :)
LOL Not true - I didn't take those pics, they came from scienceweather.com I believe?
So you don't think that was the comet in that picture?!
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