by Joe Stieber » Wed Apr 29, 2020 5:01 pm
shaileshs wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 4:18 am
It looks so beautiful. One thing I'm wondering - Closest to Earth on May 13 (so good chance we can see it during our night time), closest to Sun around May 27 (means we can't see it in our night time) but then someone predicts it'll be brightest in June means it'll get brighter after going around Sun and on it's way back we can see it with unaided eye ? Thanks to everyone in advance for their answers/comments.
While it's technically true that C/2020 F8 will be a nighttime object from mid-May into June 2020, here at my 40°N latitude, it will be above the horizon mostly in the daytime while hugging the horizons at the end of evening twilight and the beginning of morning twilight. For example, at perihelion on May 27, F8 sets about three hours after the sun and rises about three hours before the sun. At that time of the year, twilight is almost two hours long, so it won't be well placed high in a dark sky, but not necessarily impossible or even difficult to see depending on how the brightness actually develops. There are a number of southern hemisphere
magnitude estimates from April 28 & 29 in the 5.x range. That’s encouraging.
Peak brightness should be around May 20/21, between its closest approach to earth (May 13) and perihelion (May 27), then it should start to fade, continuing to do so into June. I don’t know why the APOD text seems to imply that C/2020 F8 will reach unaided eye brightness in June,
do they really mean May? Of course, the usual disclaimer about comet brightness projections applies.
[quote=shaileshs post_id=301790 time=1588133923 user_id=143908]
It looks so beautiful. One thing I'm wondering - Closest to Earth on May 13 (so good chance we can see it during our night time), closest to Sun around May 27 (means we can't see it in our night time) but then someone predicts it'll be brightest in June means it'll get brighter after going around Sun and on it's way back we can see it with unaided eye ? Thanks to everyone in advance for their answers/comments.
[/quote]
While it's technically true that C/2020 F8 will be a nighttime object from mid-May into June 2020, here at my 40°N latitude, it will be above the horizon mostly in the daytime while hugging the horizons at the end of evening twilight and the beginning of morning twilight. For example, at perihelion on May 27, F8 sets about three hours after the sun and rises about three hours before the sun. At that time of the year, twilight is almost two hours long, so it won't be well placed high in a dark sky, but not necessarily impossible or even difficult to see depending on how the brightness actually develops. There are a number of southern hemisphere [url=https://cobs.si/analysis2?col=comet_id&id=1876&plot_type=0]magnitude estimates[/url] from April 28 & 29 in the 5.x range. That’s encouraging.
Peak brightness should be around May 20/21, between its closest approach to earth (May 13) and perihelion (May 27), then it should start to fade, continuing to do so into June. I don’t know why the APOD text seems to imply that C/2020 F8 will reach unaided eye brightness in June, [i]do they really mean May?[/i] Of course, the usual disclaimer about comet brightness projections applies.