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A Comet Cache?


Iowa Tom

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Hey are you guys down there seeing Comet McNaught right now? I can hardly believe my eyes when I see the pictures coming in from the Southern Hemisphere. I only caught one glimpse of it from here in the central US before it headed south. <_< I have made many geocaches that have a theme that is related to something about nature. I would think that making one about this unreal comet would be good. :yikes:

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I tried looking for it last night after reading this thread. I looked in the south-west skies after searching the internet a little for info on where it is. I couldn't see anything.

 

What tips are there to see it? Should I go up the mountain to see it or can I be in the suburbs and still see it? Where is the best spot in the Cape to see this? We would like to have a good look at it. Thanks

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No, you wount be able to see it from where you are. Need to go to sea point side, as its closish to the horizon. Only visible about sunset.

Even more amazing than the comet last night was the moon. It had a huge star, shining right in the cresent.

Never seen anything like it in all my life!

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Absolutely amazing. Saw the comet, Cresent moon with pinacle star and a satalite all on the same evening from the Strand. Hopefully the pictures come out!!!!

The image below and the quotation here is from SpaceWeather.com. "Even experienced astronomers have never seen anything like it--a sweeping fan of comet dust visible to the unaided eye despite city lights and twilight. Steve Crane sends this Jan. 19th picture from Cape Town, South Africa."

 

crane1.jpg

 

I made this graphic to show what was up in the west as seen from the Cape after sunset on Jan 21st. The upward slanting lines are about a fist-width held at arm's length apart.

 

CapeTown1-21-07-1.jpg

 

If you want to try to determine what satellite you saw go to Heavens-Above. It looks like you will have a high pass of the Space Station on Jan 30. It may even cross in front of the moon! I've seen that happen. It’s a brilliant object to watch. It'll be about as bright as Venus, the star-like object you saw.

 

Iowa Tom NE Iowa USA

Edited by Iowa Tom
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Tried on Friday but was to late. Move on to a hill outside Stellenbosch Saturday evening at 20h00 and watched the sun set, the comet and then the cherry on top the star on the moon, what a night! The only thing that could improve this experience would have blackout for about 10 min.

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