Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 12, 2013 7:48:47 GMT -6
Chicago Astronomer Comet Pan-STARRS Party
Wednesday - 13 March 2013
Wednesday - 13 March 2013
The Chicago Astronomers will set-up Telescopes Wednesday evening at 7:00pm to attempt to catch our first glimpse of Comet Pan-STARRS low in our western skies...just after sunset.
Despite the false media hype, this comet will not dazzle the heavens and really, be rather hard to locate naked eye. It should be a fine telescopic target and the full power of the C11 should bring it in nicely. (The above pic is from 11 March 2013 from under Texas skies. We should expect about the same.)
We will set-up at our usual Chicago Astronomer Observation spot - just west of the Adler Planetarium building. Of course, this session is pending on the weather, but forecast calls for clearing skies by set-up time. Monitor this thread and our social media feeds for updates and confirmations.
For those who plan in joining us, note that we will all have a small observation window - may 15 minutes if we are lucky. After that, the comet will have sunk too low to the horizon and lost for the session. Arriving at 8pm will only bring you Jupiter....which isn't all that bad. We will track this comet for the next couple of months, but now in the next 2 weeks is when it will be at it's brightest.
If free, join us for some comet watching...and I'll throw in Jupiter for kicks.
