How to Spot The Comet This Week

Two comets visible in the Chilean night sky, March 2013. PANSTARRS is seen in the lower right. Credit: Juri Beletsky, Observatorio de Las Campanas, Chile.

The first of two great comets expected to be visible to the naked eye in 2013 makes its flyby this weekend.

Comet PANSTARRS will be closest to the sun on March 10th, but for those of us in the northern hemisphere, it will start to appear to the west just after sunset tonight, March 8. But for the first couple of days it's going to be close to the western horizon and dim, so you'll need a pair of binoculars and quick reflexes to spot it.

The best viewing will be on March 12th, when we'll have a thin, dim crescent moon to guide you?the comet will be passing very close to it, from our perspective. Even on the 12th and 13th, though (Tuesday and Wednesday), keep a pair of binocs handy if you have them. Although the comet might well be visible to the naked eye, the binoculars will give you a better chance to catch it.

PANSTARRS, first spotted in June 2011 by Hawaii's Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response project (from which it takes its name), initially had an expected magnitude of 19 (the higher the number, the dimmer the comet). That magnitude would have made it too dim to see without a telescope, but later, scientists revised their rating to a 13.5 and it's been dropping ever since then. Now, it's expected to be a 1 or 2?plenty bright enough to spot in the night sky.

To make the event even more exciting, PANSTARRS is a non-periodic comet, meaning it's not like Halley's Comet, which swings by our planet every 86 years or so. Its orbit won't bring it back to our sun for hundreds, if not millions, of years, if it ever returns.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/how-to-spot-the-comet-this-week-15189413?src=rss

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