Right from the beginning of this year, there is a lot of hype about Comet ISON. I was patiently waiting for October (when the comet eventually arrives closer to Mars) for a chance to view and photograph ISON. ISON is approaching the Sun rapidly. It is just travelling at 150,000 miles per hour now and is expected to reach an astonishing ~425,000 miles per hour as it whips around the Sun on November 28th (perihelion).
Since mid-October, at least few times a week, I have been waking up around 4:30. If it turns out to be cloudy, I go right back to sleep. If not, I step out to the backyard or front yard, use the star maps and my Binoculars to capture ISON. The problem with doing this from home is the light pollution caused by the street lights. Now I have started going to couple of dark locations within 30 minutes from home where there is no light pollution.
I was able to take some photos but I really want to lower your expectation. ISON is not very bright yet and barely visible to the naked eye. In these photos, ISON has a slight greenish tinge and the red arrow points to ISON.
This is a Sun-grazing comet and one of 2 things will happen:
1) ISON survives the perihelion on Nov. 28th and brightens up.
2) ISON breaks up due to the gravitational pull of the Sun.
I am hoping for 1).
The famous comet hunter David H. Levy once said: “Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
Since mid-October, at least few times a week, I have been waking up around 4:30. If it turns out to be cloudy, I go right back to sleep. If not, I step out to the backyard or front yard, use the star maps and my Binoculars to capture ISON. The problem with doing this from home is the light pollution caused by the street lights. Now I have started going to couple of dark locations within 30 minutes from home where there is no light pollution.
I was able to take some photos but I really want to lower your expectation. ISON is not very bright yet and barely visible to the naked eye. In these photos, ISON has a slight greenish tinge and the red arrow points to ISON.
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| October 16th, Wednesday, 4:30 AM. On October 16th, Mars(middle), Regulus(right) and ISON aligned up in a straight line. As I was taking this photo from the backyard, a bright meteor streaked through the sky and drew a line between Mars and ISON. I took it as a gift from the Universe for looking up the sky in awe and wonder :) |
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| November 17th, Sunday, 4:59 AM. After a month of chasing ISON, I think it is slowly getting brighter. Through Binoculars, the distinct green tinge was clearly visible. The star below ISON is Spica. |
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| November 17th, Sunday, 4:59 AM. This is a cropped close up of the previous photo. |
1) ISON survives the perihelion on Nov. 28th and brightens up.
2) ISON breaks up due to the gravitational pull of the Sun.
I am hoping for 1).
The famous comet hunter David H. Levy once said: “Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
If ISON is alive after November 28th, I should be able to watch its return, back to the outer space all the way in to late January, 2014.
Where is comet's tail ??
ReplyDeleteIt is there but not very bright yet. For now, use your imagination :) I am hoping I will capture the tail soon :)
ReplyDelete