http://blog.teledyn.com/node/2463 Comments for "The Brilliant Comet McNaught" en http://blog.teledyn.com/node/2463 <p><a href="http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught.htm"><img src="http://spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/08jan07/Stevenson1_med.jpg" class="right"/></a>Find a spot where a building blocks out the Sun, but allows you a clear view of the sky just to the east, far enough to that side to stay visible up to a half hour past sunset. That stretched out cloud pointing off into the sky is Comet McNaught, said to be the brightest comet to pass our skies in over 40 years.</p> <blockquote><p><cite class="blog-source">Comet McNaught hasn't disappointed. As it veered into Mercury's orbit, the comet ejected fiery debris, putting on a spectacular show visible in the daytime, with the naked eye. Astronomers assign a numerical value to celestial objects to denote their brightness; the lower the number, the brighter the object. Comet McNaught has reached minus 5, compared to minus 4 for the planet Venus</cite><br /> <i class="blog-source">[ <a href="http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art48626.asp">The Brilliant Comet McNaught - Astronomy</a> ]</i></p></blockquote> <p>Unfortunately for those of us in the northern hemisphere, McNaught's round of the Sun shoots it out to our southern side, which is just as well considering the cloudy cold-snap up here in the woodlands. If you'd like to sneak a peek before it skips out to Argentina, <a href="http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070104_comet_mcnaught.html">Space.com has viewing maps</a> and links to the archival and current <a href="http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070112_ns_comet_mcnaught.html">SOHO images</a></p> http://blog.teledyn.com/node/2463#comments song of the stargazers Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:04:33 -0500 mrG 2463 at http://blog.teledyn.com