Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) - bright in late 2013

[Dark Neptune]

@Dark Neptune - I have root beer at home. But better news is it's on Singtel mio TV Channel 201 at 8pm too.

Lol I read your post too late (10.30pm here now, haiz). Ah well. t minus 5.5 days!

[Gary]

If sky is clear near the horizon, by 6am this morning (24 Nov), Mercury, Saturn, Comet ISON & 2p/Enke may visible in Singapore!

[Dark Neptune]

If sky is clear near the horizon, by 6am this morning (24 Nov), Mercury, Saturn, Comet ISON & 2p/Encke may visible in Singapore!

I tried today. But my east sky's horizon was cloudy, but Regulus n Mars was clear! Then at 5.36am, felt hungry and left my house to go to my nearby mac and dabao breakfast. Then wah lau eh, on the way back at 5.50am, clouds kachow the entire East sky. :'(

Lovejoy is now becoming less visible too as it is moving higher up above the Earth's ecliptic plane, which does not benefit anybody that is not observing from the Northern Hemisphere..... ah well

But last night 11pm-5am+ East sky at my western SG area was miraculously clear, especially given this is monsoon period.

[antares2063]

Just sharing another online comet update ..dated 25th

http://www.isoncampaign.org/Present

regards,
Junwei

[starfinder]

Comet Ison is now visible in the Soho Lasco C3 images:
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/rea ... mages.html#
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/index.html/

Read here for some updates on Ison (there is speculation on whether Ison is disintegrating or has even already done so; hope they are wrong):
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observin ... 09261.html

[starfinder]

Comet Ison has brightened by a factor of 4-10 times in the past few hours!

See my post above for links to the latest Soho (solar) satellite imagery of the Comet. It's very interesting to watch Comet Ison's developments near perihelion. Perihelion passage takes place at around 2am Friday morning Singapore time.

The NASA Comet Ison Observing Campaign says (in 27 Nov update):
"Since entering the LASCO C3 field of view, comet ISON has increased by at least a factor of four, and indications are it may be closer to a factor of ten. In the most recently available images, the comet appears to be around magnitude +0.5.

It is now the opinion of the CIOC Team that Comet ISON is now behaving like a sungrazing comet. We can not comment on whether the nucleus is in tact or not, but our analyses indicate that its rate of brightening is directly in line with that we have experienced with other sungrazing comets. This has no implication on its chances of survival."
http://www.isoncampaign.org/Present

See also:
CIOC's latest tweets at https://mobile.twitter.com/SungrazerComets
One of their latest tweets says Comet Ison is now around mag -0.5

And here for a good update summary and links:
http://nbcnews.com/science/comet-ison-b ... 2D11665032

Right now Ison looks to me like its brighter than Comet Lovejoy (2011) was at this stage before perihelion. And quite healthy indeed.

[Gary]

Comet ISON is dead. Rest in Peace.

[Gary]

Apparently it *MAY* not be dead. Check out the latest #ison tweets. Latest images might be showing ISON or debris.

[starfinder]

Amazing roller-coaster. After the experts practically declared that Comet Ison was destroyed, we have the following:

"CANCEL THE EULOGY ... FOR NOW: Comet ISON flew through the sun's atmosphere on Nov. 28th and the encounter did not go well for the icy comet. Just before perihelion (closest approach to the sun) the comet rapidly faded and appeared to disintegrate. This prompted reports of ISON's demise. However, a fraction of the comet might have survived."
http://spaceweather.com/

"Alright we're calling it, and you heard it here first: We believe some small part of #ISON's nucleus has SURVIVED perihelion.
10:46am - 29 Nov 13"
https://mobile.twitter.com/SungrazerCom ... 4705071104


In the SOHO Lasco images, Comet Ison dimmed significantly and appeared to vanish hours before perihelion, but hours later a trace appeared on the other side of the Sun and then a bright spot grew.

My theory is that perhaps Comet Ison has layers. The outer layer of the nucleus was burnt off near perihelion, and so the coma slowly dissipated and the comet appeared to have vanished and been destroyed by the Sun. However, an inner layer of the nucleus remained and survived perihelion passage, but it took time for the new coma to get heated up and grow to a visible (bright) size. Hope that's what actually happened.