Today in the evening, just after sunset, step out of your house and look west. You will see two relatively bright points of light, one below the other. Those are the planets Jupiter and venus, venus being above and Venus below. Just below those two and a little bit above the horizon you will see comet PanSTARRS with it’s two tails, a short white dust tail and a blue ion tail. If you have binoculars, you may be able to see it even better. If you have a really good camera which can take long exposures please post a picture here.
I’ve learned it has been there for the last two years! Just can’t tell how I didn’t know about it. I know it is also tricky to see it because at the moment the moon is quite bright. Probably it will be easily discernable by next week when the moon will rise late on the other side of the sky.
Another thing I’ve come to learn is that these guys talk to themselves whenever they make entries in the Web. They think that everybody is either in Europe, America or Australia! Like now they are talking to people living in the southern hemisphere, most probably in Australia, when they explain how easy it is to see the Comet!
Saa mbili ndiyo sunset huko? Sunset here in kenya is around 6:40 so put that in your reminder. Also you may have a bit of trouble spotting it if you are in a well lit area. It will not be bright like a star right now but the brightness will increase for a while until August. The image up there was taken with a long exposure camera so if you have one that’s capable of that like a DSLR take a picture and post it here…
It was actually discovered last year by Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS). As a comet gets closer to the sun gas and dust is blown of it by solar wind making it both brighter and creating a tail. It has already rounded the sun and been as been on it’s closest approach to it, called it’s perihelion. Now it’s on it’s way out of the solar system. Because it is a small comet, it will fade out pretty fast as it moves away from the sun and the Earth.
There was also comet LoveJoy around January/February and then in November look out for Comet Catalina. Huku we are really disadvantaged because the equipment you need to be even an amateur astronomer is really expensive.
Saw them a couple of weeks back, when on top of the roof having my routine session with the dish (fta) not the side-dish. one was very beatiful & shiny, the other looked smaller. Thought they were just beatiful stars… Will try & take a pic 2dy if the cloud ll be clear.
I think, regretfully, the comet is not visible from this location! I have been trying to look but I can’t find it. The skies over Mombasa have been relatively clear for some days.