Sour Grapes
Of course we're Fair and Balanced!

2004-04-15

Comet NEAT

From Spaceweather.com [scroll down to the heading COMET NEAT], "news and information about the Sun-Earth environment," comes news of Comet NEAT [full story, with links]:



In the southern hemisphere constellation Horologium, Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4) is growing brighter every day. It's glowing like a 3rd magnitude star now, visible in the evening sky from, e.g., Australia, southern Africa and South America. Ray Pickard at the Bathurst Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, made these sketches of the comet on April 12th. Rather than taking pictures, says Bathurst, "I prefer to sketch because the eye can be better at recording faint details." [sky map]


This comet will soon swing north and brighten further to about 1st magnitude. Northern hemisphere sky watchers should have no trouble seeing it in the evening sky after May 5th. [sky map]


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