Comet McNaught

Comets are rare visitors, at least, those easily visible to the naked eye, and so the arrival of Comet McNaught in this part of the sky is extremely welcome.


McNaught, aka C-2006 P1 McNaught, is a non-periodic comet that was only discovered in August of last year, by an Australian astronomer (McNaught). Much more on the comet in Wikipedia - click here...

It´s called a *Sun-grazer* because its orbit takes it so close to the sun, which is why it appears so bright, but this means that it moves relatively quickly, and will fade rapidly as it moves away from the sun.

Tonight (18th January) was the first night that the weather permitted viewing here since the comet became visible. The first glimpses, from my doorstep were exciting, but I hadn't realised how much better it would get as the sky darkened. The pictures here are taken with a Nikon Coolpix 3500 from about 9 pm local time this evening, and are very pleasing to me.


The tail is beautifully curved, and there is some structure visible, but my equipment isn't sophisticated enough to show great detail. The comet is moving up and to the left relative to the background stars, so over the next few days will set later and later, which may make viewing easier, but it will tend to fade at the same time... Now was probably as good a night as any to see it.


There's a chance that the comet could break up in the next few days, which will add interest, and also make the thing seem much brighter - if so I'll attempt to photograph it, and post updates...