I didn't realize it was that far out. It's impressive that it has a smudge of a tail. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 2:05 PM MST Seth Jarvis wrote:

Shoot - fingers typing too fast for my slow brain to track.

I meant to say that ISON is currently about 4.6 AU from the Sun.

Seth

-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Seth Jarvis Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 1:27 PM To: 'Utah Astronomy' Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] ISON tonight, 2013 FEB 25

Joe,

ISON is still about 4.6 AM from the Sun. Perihelion isn't until late November, when it will get only about a million miles from the Sun. It's a Sun-grazer in every sense of the word! For contrast, Comet PANNSTARS, which we'll be seeing (we hope) in another couple of weeks has a perihelion distance of roughly the Sun-Mercury distance of ~28 million miles.

As many images as Patrick is taking, he'll be able to stitch them together into a "movie" showing ISON's passage against the background stars and show the comet's gradual brightening and growth in the months ahead. Because it's a Sun-grazer, and it's an Oort Cloud object making its first approach to the Sun, it promises to be super-bright.

Then again, always remember Kahoutek.

The challenge for ISON viewing this late November and early December is that because ISON is a Sun-grazer, to see the head of the comet you'll practically need to be looking at the Sun. For most folks, I think our best bet is to look for the tail rising brightly in the east prior to sunrise, or if we're lucky, get a view of a _daytime_ comet.

Seth

-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Joe Bauman Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 12:54 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] ISON tonight, 2013 FEB 25

It's not very impressive. When is it supposed to blossom? -- Joe

------------------------------ On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 8:45 AM MST Chuck Hards wrote:

...

Focus seems a bit soft. Or was the wind really blowing?

Thanks, hope it starts to leave the "smudge" stage behind soon.

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 2:38 AM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:

ISON tonight: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/C_2012_S1.2013FEB25.JPG

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