Starship Asterisk*

Comet ISON Rising

Explanation: Will Comet ISON survive tomorrow's close encounter with the Sun? Approaching to within a solar diameter of the Sun's surface, the fate of one of the most unusual comets of modern times will finally be determined. The comet could shed a great amount of ice and dust into a developing tail -- or break apart completely. Unfortunately, the closer Comet ISON gets to the Sun, the harder it has been for conventional telescopes to see the brightening comet in the glare of the morning Sun. Pictured in the above short time lapse video, Comet ISON was captured rising over the Canary Islands just above the morning Sun a few days ago. If the comet's nucleus survives, the coma and the tails it sheds might well be visible rising ahead of the Sun in the next few days or weeks. Alternatively, satellites watching the Sun might document one of the larger comet disintegrations yet recorded. Stay tuned!

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What a nice peaceful and serene start to the day!

Truly brilliant composition and video capture of ISON here. Most unfortunately though, I'm not currently in Montalban, Rizal, philippines today as I was previously planning to view this November 27/28 passing on top of a mountain-top near Wawa dam. Plans change in life. Respects to those who capture this brilliant comet. I can't wait to see what is composed and published. As for Philippines, I only hope I shall return.

Is planet Mercury visible in this video? I saw Comet ISON on the mornings of November 13 & 14. I was on the MIid-Atlantic shore in Ocean City Maryland. I had been hoping to catch a glimpse of planet Mercury. Both mornings I saw something small, round, fuzzy and sort of cloud like rise about 1/2 hour above the Sun. At the time I did not know it was ISON. Mercury was to be at a good elongation on those dates. I don't think I ever saw the planet. It was after downloading and running "Stellarium" I realized it was Comet ISON I saw between the Sun and where Mercury was supposed to be...C_S

http://www.stellarium.org/

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

what was that object streaking across the video at a high rate of speed in the upper right hand corner about 15-17 seconds into the video???
that thing was flying...

Coil_Smoke wrote:Is planet Mercury visible in this video? I saw Comet ISON on the mornings of November 13 & 14. I was on the MIid-Atlantic shore in Ocean City Maryland. I had been hoping to catch a glimpse of planet Mercury. Both mornings I saw something small, round, fuzzy and sort of cloud like rise about 1/2 hour above the Sun. At the time I did not know it was ISON. Mercury was to be at a good elongation on those dates. I don't think I ever saw the planet. It was after downloading and running "Stellarium" I realized it was Comet ISON I saw between the Sun and where Mercury was supposed to be...C_S

http://www.stellarium.org/

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

Yes, Mercury is visible and very bright and reddish in this APOD, rising shortly after and to the left of ISON.

But on the 13th and 14th of November, my software (Stellarium) says that ISON rose more than three hours before the Sun from Ocean City, which does not match your description.

ristau5741 wrote:what was that object streaking across the video at a high rate of speed in the upper right hand corner about 15-17 seconds into the video???
that thing was flying...

Being a time lapse video, everything is moving much faster than it would naturally. My guess is the streak is a satellite -- they tend to be more visible at dusk and dawn.

Does anyone know what equipment was used to make this time lapse video? I watched Comet ISON through 11x56mm binoculars the same morning, November 22, although about eight hours after this video was shot, due to my more western longitude. Mercury, Alpha Librae, and Saturn were visible to the unaided eye. In the video I can only see ISON and Mercury. I'm trying to understand the discrepancy.

This is a lovely video, by the way. I would love to visit the Canary Islands some day.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Does anyone know what equipment was used to make this time lapse video? I watched Comet ISON through 11x56mm binoculars the same morning, November 22, although about eight hours after this video was shot, due to my more western longitude. Mercury, Alpha Librae, and Saturn were visible to the unaided eye. In the video I can only see ISON and Mercury. I'm trying to understand the discrepancy.

Given the FOV and sort of equipment most serious imagers use, I'd guess this was taken with a full-frame DSLR and something around a 70 mm lens. Looks like the start was about 5 am. Saturn was only just rising at the end, where the sky is saturating the image, which is why you can't see it. Your eye has a wider effective dynamic range than the camera. In order to have captured Saturn on the sensor, the exposure time would need to be reduced. (Saturn is about as far below Mercury as Mercury is sideways from ISON. Alpha Libra is right next to Saturn, so it's also lost in the twilight.)

Chris Peterson wrote:

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Does anyone know what equipment was used to make this time lapse video? I watched Comet ISON through 11x56mm binoculars the same morning, November 22, although about eight hours after this video was shot, due to my more western longitude. Mercury, Alpha Librae, and Saturn were visible to the unaided eye. In the video I can only see ISON and Mercury. I'm trying to understand the discrepancy.

Given the FOV and sort of equipment most serious imagers use, I'd guess this was taken with a full-frame DSLR and something around a 70 mm lens. Looks like the start was about 5 am. Saturn was only just rising at the end, where the sky is saturating the image, which is why you can't see it. Your eye has a wider effective dynamic range than the camera. In order to have captured Saturn on the sensor, the exposure time would need to be reduced. (Saturn is about as far below Mercury as Mercury is sideways from ISON. Alpha Libra is right next to Saturn, so it's also lost in the twilight.)

Thanks Chris. That makes sense.

Nitpicker wrote:

ristau5741 wrote:what was that object streaking across the video at a high rate of speed in the upper right hand corner about 15-17 seconds into the video???
that thing was flying...

Being a time lapse video, everything is moving much faster than it would naturally. My guess is the streak is a satellite -- they tend to be more visible at dusk and dawn.

I noticed two very fast streaks: one around 17 seconds at the upper right and one just shy of 20 seconds a little lower and more horizontal.

Chris Peterson wrote: ... Alpha Libra is right next to Saturn, so it's also lost in the twilight.)

Alpha Librae --I know you're quietly campaigning to put the Latin genitive case in the dustbin of history, but we are talking about a star that belongs to the constellation Libra, not about the brightest constellation named Libra, so the genitive makes more sense than the nominative case. One thing I love about the study of astronomy is that it connects us to other people around the world and throughout history, including the opportunity to learn a bit of Latin, Greek, and Arabic.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote: ... Alpha Libra is right next to Saturn, so it's also lost in the twilight.)

Alpha Librae --I know you're quietly campaigning to put the Latin genitive case in the dustbin of history, but we are talking about a star that belongs to the constellation Libra, not about the brightest constellation named Libra, so the genitive makes more sense than the nominative case. One thing I love about the study of astronomy is that it connects us to other people around the world and throughout history, including the opportunity to learn a bit of Latin, Greek, and Arabic.

Nope, using the Latin genitive in an English sentence makes no sense to me. Alpha Libra - the brightest star in the constellation Libra. I don't care if others follow the convention, but I choose not to do so. Since there's no possibility of confusing the meaning, either construction should be fine.

(I don't want to get rid of the Latin genitive; when I'm reading Latin, it makes perfect sense!)

Chris Peterson wrote:

Anthony Barreiro wrote:

Chris Peterson wrote:
... Alpha Libra is right next to Saturn, so it's also lost in the twilight.)

Alpha Librae --I know you're quietly campaigning to put the Latin genitive case in the dustbin of history, but we are talking about a star that belongs to the constellation Libra, not about the brightest constellation named Libra, so the genitive makes more sense than the nominative case. One thing I love about the study of astronomy is that it connects us to other people around the world and throughout history, including the opportunity to learn a bit of Latin, Greek, and Arabic.

Nope, using the Latin genitive in an English sentence makes no sense to me. Alpha Libra - the brightest star in the constellation Libra. I don't care if others follow the convention, but I choose not to do so. Since there's no possibility of confusing the meaning, either construction should be fine. (I don't want to get rid of the Latin genitive; when I'm reading Latin, it makes perfect sense!)

A Zubenelgenubi by any other name would smell as sweet.

neufer wrote:A Zubenelgenubi by any other name would smell as sweet.

It is my favourite star name.

The smell of astronomical objects is so rarely discussed. Anyone know any olfacto-astronomers?

Why aren't there anymore up to date reports on the space weather site or in the link mentioned in this post? Quite a lot has happened to Ison since yesterday I imagine...

Nitpicker wrote:

neufer wrote:
A Zubenelgenubi by any other name would smell as sweet.

It is my favourite star name.

The smell of astronomical objects is so rarely discussed. Anyone know any olfacto-astronomers?

• Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Smell-O-Scope wrote:
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... -Scope.png
http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clip ... melloscope

"If a dog craps anywhere in the universe,
you can bet I won't be out of the loop."
―Hubert J. Farnsworth[source]

<<The Smell-O-Scope was an invention created by Professor Farnsworth. It allowed users to smell odors over extremely long distances. Though it was damaged in Bender's Big Score, it later returned, intact, in The Beast with a Billion Backs. Another, smaller version, shaped like a large cake, was also featured in The Beast with a Billion Backs.>>

Ludo wrote:
Why aren't there anymore up to date reports on the space weather site or in the link mentioned in this post? Quite a lot has happened to Ison since yesterday I imagine...

http://www.nasa.gov/ison/

Nitpicker wrote:

...

neufer wrote:

A Zubenelgenubi by any other name would smell as sweet.

...

It is my favourite star name.

...

The smell of astronomical objects is so rarely discussed. Anyone know any olfacto-astronomers?

Calabash!

geckzilla wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:
The smell of astronomical objects is so rarely discussed. Anyone know any olfacto-astronomers?

Calabash!

In space no one can smell your smell.

Ann

Ann wrote:In space no one can smell your smell.

But I'll bet space suits can get a bit ripe...

Well, if you were a very large space-dwelling creature, your olfactory senses would have to be vast and designed to pick up the trace chemicals existing in the hard vacuum of the space environment.

neufer wrote:

Ludo wrote:
Why aren't there anymore up to date reports on the space weather site or in the link mentioned in this post? Quite a lot has happened to Ison since yesterday I imagine...

http://www.nasa.gov/ison/

Thanks Neufer!!

ISON reached perihelion at 11:37 Pacific time or 18:37UTC at a distance of just over 1.2 million miles or 2 million kilometers and a Max speed of 800,364 mph and has begun shedding speed

The latest news from the live NASA hangout on ISON is that it has very probably disintegrated.