Has it been this long since I updated here?? Aren't I a bad blogger to leave you all hanging like that??
Anyhow, update time. Spent an unexpected but welcome short break with Ally, meeting up with her mad friends Sarah and Shereen - hi girls! -
PS Sarah like having her bum spanked BTW! hehehe. It was all good though.
While I was away, something happened in the astronomy world that had astronomers all over the world scrambling to find a dark sky as soon as possible.
A formerly unexceptional comet, dimly glowing at a level that would need
BIG telescopes to even find it, suddenly brightened up to a point where you can go out into your backyard and just look up and its obvious.
17P/Holmes - which was discovered in 1892 - suddenly appeared and has created much debate and discussion and will continue to do so. As a consequence of its appearance, I've been down the observatory on many nights, helping the team image the comet. Our best effort is easily
this one (its a bit big for the blogger page so its an external link.)
Should you want to have a pop at finding it, and it looks good in binoculars, this map should be useful:
This is in the northwest, and if you can find the obvious cluster that is the Pleiades, then the comet shouldn't be a problem! However, its not a stereotypical comet so don't expect a long flowing tail. At 2 and half times the earth-sun distance, the solar wind isn't strong enough. But have fun anyway.
