Updates on Comet PanSTARRS

Desert Gypsy's picture

Skyandtelescope.com,3/14/13, Alan MacRobert

 

Comet PanSTARRS and Moon, March 12, 2013

Greg Mort in Ashton, Maryland, was one of many who caught the comet and Moon on the evening of March 12th. He used a 100-mm lens and 2.5-second exposure.

 

March 14: A little star with a dim tail. Many, many people saw it last evening, aided by the crescent Moon, but many others failed. S&T's Tony Flanders writes: "I caught it from the balcony of my mother's apartment at 7:55, 54 minutes after sunset [at latitude 41° N]. I'm sure I would have spotted it much, much earlier except that I had been looking too high, too far left, and for a very different kind of object.

"I'm sure this comet will never be obvious to the unaided eye from our latitude, much less spectacular. But it sure is a beauty through my 10x30 image-stabilized binoculars. I was looking for something larger and more diffuse; in fact, it's tiny and intensely bright, with a nearly stellar head (at 10x) and a short, very bright tail."

 

For more information and great pictures please see Skyandtelescope.com

 

 

 

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Comet Panstar

Ra-Raela's picture

If our sky hadn't been inundated with vapor trails at the horizon, I could have seen it, too.