New Comet Now Visible to Naked Eye

Yahoo ^ | December 8, 2004 | Robert Roy Rritt

[JeffersonRepublic.com]

Ping... waiting for a clear sky

[FreedomCalls]

Comet Machholz

Coarse finder chart (60° field-of-view, stars to mag. 6.5)

Fine finder chart (5° field-of-view, stars to mag. 9.0)

All data valid for local time 06:09:45, 09 Dec (UTC 05:09:45, 09 Dec)

Geocentric Data
Right Ascension (J2000):	4h 41m 19.6s
Declination (J2000):	-22° 28' 26"
Constellation:	Eridanus
Magnitude:	5.6
Distance from Earth:	0.5269 AU
Light time:	263 seconds

Heliocentric Data
Distance from Sun:	1.4045 AU
Perihelion:	1.2051 AU (24-Jan-2005)
Aphelion:	4,838.51 AU
Period:	119,039.8 years
Eccentricity:	0.999502
Inclination to ecliptic:	38.589°
Longitude of ascending node:	93.627°
Argument of perihelion:	19.502°

[concentric circles]

From Sky and Telescope: Comet symbols show it's position at
0:00 Universal Time on the dates indicated; which is on the
evening of the previous date local time in North America.

[My2Cents]

[Eastbound]

Found it. I think. It's the only fuzzy object in the area. Pretty big through the binocs. Using a 12x50 zoom at wide angle. Seems a little on top of the line you drew. Is that correct?

[My2Cents]

Hope it's clear here on Jan. 5th. It should be easy to find, just below the Pleiades.

[dc-zoo]

Naked Eye.. sounds a bit Ob Seen.

[Kirkwood]

Graat! Ill be high up in the mountains around Jan 5 and 6 and hopefully will have clear skies.

[Eastbound]

Oops! My mistake. I don't have zoom, so just using the 12. (272 feet @ 1000 yards). Will try to take a picture with my Z1 digital.

[Right Wing Professor]

Thanks. I've put its current (12/8/04) position on the map, as a yellow dot; The yellow arrow points to it. It's going to inch up slowly each night.

[Brad’s Gramma]

So! I went outside as directed....I saw two planes coming in to John Wayne...and the neighbors have THE nicest rooftop decorations.

Other than that....a wholelotta clouds. :)

[Right Wing Professor]

That's right where I saw it. Thanks.

[Right Wing Professor]

Seems a little on top of the line you drew. Is that correct?

Hard to say what's a straight line on a sphere. :-) I gave the best estimate I could using a ruler and a star atlas.

[Right Wing Professor]

Could you put that into laymans (farm people) terms please?

Hey, I live on a farm too.

It's low in the south. I've you've got really good eyes and you live away from the city, you might see it as a fuzzy patch to the south about midnight, if you let your eyes get used to the darkness for a half hour. If you have any kind of binoculars or a spotting scope, it should show up pretty clear. It'll be getting brighter and higher in the sky for the next month; I'd estimate it'll be easily visible to the naked eye by early January.

[Eska]

Live up on the yukon, real dark skys. Cold & clear minus 32. I noticed something yellower & brighter to the SE on horizon; different than everything else with bino's. Or is it straight south on horizon?

[Angry Enough]

Is this any relation to Comet LouHolz?

[El Gato]

Cloudy here, darnit!

Here too. If I'd just known last night I could have finally used my new telescope, which I've had for about 6 months (It was a gift). I'm in a fairly dark sky spot, so with the 'scope or my 7X50s, I should be able to see it pretty well

.....

Just went out to check. It's cleared up since sunset! However, I've recently moved and just discovered that I haven't a clue where my binoculars are. :( Oh, well, I'll set up the 'scope tommorrow and take a look.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Thanks for the viewing information. My husband is an excellent amateur astronomer. We have an 8" Celestron in a trunk which we'll have to get out and use to find this comet, of course. :-)

[apastron]

[Eastbound]

Going to have to try it again tomorrow. Here's my first attempt. At least I think I'm in the right area but need to bracket a few for longer exposure. Thanks for the tip, RWP.

CLICK!