Comet Lovejoy

[Regulus]

Anybody taken a look at this cosmic interloper? Right now its below and to the right of the Pleades Star Cluster (M45) in Taurus. If you are away from city lights it's visible to the naked eye.

[Bonniegirl]

[Furienna]

I never saw the last comet, even though I tried to find it. But I remember the Hyakutake and the Hale-Bopp from back in the 90s.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Furienna

I never saw the last comet, even though I tried to find it. But I remember the Hyakutake and the Hale-Bopp from back in the 90s.

Comets are funny creatures. Sometimes one is predicted to light up the sky while others do tyhe exact opposite. I remember in 1973 when scientists said Comet Kahoteck was going to outshine Venus in January of 1974. At Christmastime of 1973 Telescopes and Binoculars were the "Hot" Presents of that year, you couldn't find a Scope for the love of Heaven. (If the internet was around then I'm sure someone would be offering a Scope and/or Binoculars on Ebay for absurd prices. The Comet Fizzled, a year later ANOTHER Comet, Comet West, did outshine Venus, but the general public wanted nothing to do with ANY Comet. It would be 20 years before any Comet that approached first magnitude (The aforementioned Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997) would light up the skies. In 1986 the most fmous comet of them all, Halley's Comet made its appearance, unfortunately its closest approach to the sun was with the earth and the comet at opposite sides of the solar system, for all intents and purposes we got to see it "from the nosebleed seats of the solar system:. In 2013 we had reports of two comets, Pan-Starr and ISON, that were supposed to outshine Venus, unfortunately Pan-Starr was a "Horizon Hugger" that made viewing difficult, and ISON disintegrated when it approached the sun. When will the next big comet light up the sky? Heaven only knows, but when one happens I'll be sure to let everyone know about it.

For the record Hale Bopp was discovered BEFORE Hyakutake Was.

PS Comet Lovejoy is NOT the only Cosmic Phenomena occurring at this time. For the next few days VENUS and Mercury are close together, If you can see Venus look to the right of it, it will look like a dimmer star. I have a cosmic event that's on my "Bucket List", a Supernova in OUR Galaxy!