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Nightwalker50 — Southern Halley's Comet
Published: 2009-11-05 08:02:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 768; Favourites: 15; Downloads: 28
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Description
The star field of far southern Scorpius - except that I can't see that from my current location. This is a view of the sky to the south at 4:00am in northern Florida (south of Tallahassee). Look closely at the stars in the center of the picture. The one with the wide, fuzzy short tail is actually Comet Halley! It was outbound from the Sun then and almost 40 million miles from Earth. Not a good apparition, barely coming within 4th magnitude in brightness. It returns about every 76.1 yrs and will grace our sky better in August evenings (across the Big Dipper) of the year 2061. The comet will be furthest from the Sun outside Neptune's orbit in 2024, to be inbound afterward. It is the source body of the Orionid and Eta Aquarid meteor showers.Related content
Comments: 8
I wish I could have this part of the sky so high here in Poland
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Just to be in a very dark rural location makes it glorious enough too.
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Oh,that is so neat. Unfortunately I was only 2 when Halley passed by, and by the time it comes back I'll probably be too old to see it!
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Circle your calendar for Aug. 2061 for the next return of Halley's Comet (in the northwestern evening sky), but every 10-20 yrs one rounds the Sun to become bright enough to stir public attention.
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i tried so hard to view this in 1986, but failed to locate it in my early astronomy days (I was 15 at te time). I wish we could all see another Hale-Bopp type comet.
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Hi, Corey - There was alot of hype about Comet Halley in 1985, based on what it did in 1910 (my grandmother saw it twice), when our Earth passed through it's tail. In Nov. 1985, we passed it along our orbit as it was incoming and had to catch up with it some in the Spring of '86, as it was outbound from the Sun. So, a "dud," sort of. A comet can make a close pass to the Sun when it will be brightest, but then again, we have to be located in the right part of our orbit and / or in the right hemisphere of Earth for it to be spectacular.
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