Viewing Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS when it enters the evening sky
Link here. For those living in the northern hemisphere, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be bright and visible to the naked eye just after sunset beginning tomorrow.
“As soon as October 11th, ambitious comet spotters may pick up the comet during twilight just above the western horizon,” says Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor Bob King. “Binoculars will help you see the comet throughout its appearance.”
About 40 minutes after sunset on Friday, find a spot with a good view down to the western horizon. The first thing that will catch your eye will be the bright planet Venus, the Evening Star — that’s your starting point. Hold your fist out at arm’s length; the comet is about 2½ fists to Venus’s right. The comet will still look tiny in Friday’s twilight — like a hazy star with a small tail — and will set while twilight is still in progress.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced choo-cheen-SHAHN) will remain visible for the next ten days, with the best viewing likely from October 13th to October 16th.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Link here. For those living in the northern hemisphere, Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be bright and visible to the naked eye just after sunset beginning tomorrow.
“As soon as October 11th, ambitious comet spotters may pick up the comet during twilight just above the western horizon,” says Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor Bob King. “Binoculars will help you see the comet throughout its appearance.”
About 40 minutes after sunset on Friday, find a spot with a good view down to the western horizon. The first thing that will catch your eye will be the bright planet Venus, the Evening Star — that’s your starting point. Hold your fist out at arm’s length; the comet is about 2½ fists to Venus’s right. The comet will still look tiny in Friday’s twilight — like a hazy star with a small tail — and will set while twilight is still in progress.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (pronounced choo-cheen-SHAHN) will remain visible for the next ten days, with the best viewing likely from October 13th to October 16th.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“Hold your fist out at arm’s length; the comet is about 2½ fists to Venus’s right.”
This is an interesting way to describe the location. “. . . to Venus’s right.”
Since we do not know if Venus is “facing” us or “facing” away, we cannot know if we should look to the right or left of the planet as WE see it.
Haven’t heard any more about an FAA flight license. I wonder if all the hopes will be dashed, or whether there will be a last minute issuance on Friday.
Of course I was always of two minds about why so many licenses were issued at the very last moment: was it to flex the regulatory muscles and let Elon know who was boss, or was it to prevent an environmental stay from a sympathetic judge?
Or, it just occurs to me, was it perhaps both?!
Americans will do anything to avoid using the metric system or azimuth and elevation.
“To the right of Venus”. At least that’s where I’ll start looking.
Linked article: As twilight fades on Monday, October 14th, it will be two fists to the upper right of Venus (if seen from the northern U.S.) or to the right of Venus (if seen from the southern U.S.). As twilight turns to night, the comet will remain in view, its long, straight tail pointing up from the horizon.
Hope it’s big and bright!
And harbingers doom.
John observed:
“Americans will do anything to avoid using the metric system or azimuth and elevation.”
Imagine, if you will, a world in which the vasty great majority of people, could not tell you what ‘azimuth’ was, if a year’s salary were at stake. Much seems to have been made recently about the American propensity to describe weights and measures in terms of familiar objects. That’s not stupid, it’s practical.
If I say something is ‘refrigerator-size’, anyone who has seen a domestic reefer immediately grasps the concept. If I say the object is 2m high, 1m square, and weighs 150kg, you may well grasp it, but you have to process the information for a split-second. And, a lot more verbiage to describe the same concept.
Finally got to see it tonight! You can see it with the naked eyes, but I did bring some binoculars for the wife.