New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Climate and Science => Space, Science and Nature => Topic started by: Deano on August 18, 2013, 12:12:58 PM
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Since June, Comet ISON has been hidden behind the Sun.
Now an amateur imager has just recovered it low in the dawn — and it hasn't been brightening as much as we hoped.
Don't bet on a great naked-eye spectacle this December.
A couple weeks earlier than we expected, amateur imager Bruce Gary in Arizona has become the first person to pick up Comet ISON again after its 2½-month intermission behind the glare of the Sun. Using an 11-inch scope pointing only 6° above the eastern dawn horizon, and by stacking images, he succeeded in recording a fuzzy point with an anti-sunward tail at Comet ISON's exact predicted position among stars that are as faint as magnitude 16. Measuring the image, Gary comes up with a total V magnitude of 14.3 ± 0.2 for the comet that is being so widely anticipated worldwide.
Full story here at Sky&Telescope (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/Comet-ISON-Recovered-and-Not-Looking-Good-219432571.html)
(http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/Comet-ISON-recovery_by-Gary_341px.jpg)