Astronomers Discover Huge Comet Hurtling Towards Us

[rasetsu]

A few years back, we had Comet McNaught in our skies. I do not think you Northern hemisphere types got such a good look. I went out at dusk to climb a hill with a great view of the western horizon and waited while the sun went down. As it got darker, it was like an old video of a black and white photo developing. This enormous sheet of milky white slowly appeared across a quarter of the hemisphere. Dramatic beyond words.

This photo is not mine. I hope the new comet is as good.

Meh. Ever see the Aurora Borealis? We had that shit so commonly it was boring. (Though I remember one night in which the northern lights appeared to me as a vast wall reaching into infinity, ever upwards, ever upwards.)

You're on the wrong side of the planet.

[macdoc]

Yeah I walked out to the beach and my jaw hit the sand when I saw McNaught.
Was in Hermanus S Africa right on the water and had a stunning view like that above......lifetime experience but this new one might be even better.
That tail went on forever - no photo could capture the subtle spread of it across about a 1/5 of the sky. Went on for 3 nights.

You get a sense of how bright the damn thing was as the moon is shown in this one

[macdoc]

Meh. Ever see the Aurora Borealis? We had that shit so commonly it was boring.

Bull shit - NO northern lights display ( and I've seen lots ) had the impact of this comet and I've been sky watching for decades.

ONE northern light display came close and it rippled in waves right over the zenith and that was once in 50 years....it still did not have the wonder of McNaught tho it was the first and only time I could sense the earth rushing through space. Froze my ass off standing outside in mid -winter watching.
The mid lat Southern sky is far cleaner over the ocean than the crap that circles the the Northern hemisphere.

You can see the moon in the shot above and no northern lights will come anywhere close to the moon in terms of brightness and a full moon will generally wash them out.

At magnitude -2, McNaught is brighter than was Hale-Bopp in 1995.

Had there been no moon, last night’s aurora would have been a spectacle. Moonlight washed out its brilliance but the tall rays and movement were still a sight to see. I hope some of you were able to get a peek. The display was unusual in that it appeared in brief, bright eruptions instead of cresting to a peak after a long steady rise. Chances will still be good tonight for a minor display. I’ll post an update this evening.

[FBM]

Yeah I walked out to the beach and my jaw hit the sand when I saw McNaught.
Was in Hermanus S Africa right on the water and had a stunning view like that above......lifetime experience but this new one might be even better.
That tail went on forever - no photo could capture the subtle spread of it across about a 1/5 of the sky. Went on for 3 nights.

You get a sense of how bright the damn thing was as the moon is shown in this one

Is that your shot, macdoc? Facking nice, that is...Hope to get something like that when this next dirty snowball tries to piss on the sun next year.

[macdoc]

No - did not have a decent camera with me and wanted to show it against the moon for brightness purposes.

My sighting was across the South Atlantic

[Blind groper]

You're on the wrong side of the planet.

Ever hear of the aurora australis?

[rasetsu]

You're on the wrong side of the planet.

Ever hear of the aurora australis?

I have indeed. Ever heard of trolling?