That’s good news, as Comet Q2 Lovejoy enters the “prime time” evening sky and culminates over the southern horizon at around 10:30 PM local this weekend, then 8:00 PM on January the 15 th, and just before 6:00 PM by January 31 st. What’s so special about the coming week? Well, we also cross a key milestone for evening observing, as the light-polluting Moon reaches Full phase on Sunday January 5 th at 4:54 UT (11:54 PM EDT on the 4 th) and begins sliding out of the evening sky on successive evenings. Comet Q2 Lovejoy via Iphone (!) and a NexStra 8SE telescope. Q2 Lovejoy just passed opposition at 0.48 AU from the Earth today on January 2 nd, and will make its closest passage from our fair world on January 7th at 0.47 AU (43.6 million kilometres) distant. This greenish color is far more apparent in photographs, though it might just be glimpsed visually if the intrinsic brightness of the coma exceeds expectations. That green color isn’t kryptonite, but the fluorescing of diatomic carbon and cyanogen gas shed by the comet as it’s struck by ultraviolet sunlight. Astrophotographers have revealed its long majestic dust and ion tails, as well as the greenish hue characteristic of bright comets. Q2 Lovejoy was just outside of naked eye visibility for us this week, though I suspect that this will change as the Moon moves out of the evening picture this weekend.Ĭurrently shining at magnitude +5.5, Comet Q2 Lovejoy has already been spied by eagle-eyed observers unaided from dark sky sites to the south. Even as seen from latitude 47 degrees north and a frosty -23 Celsius (-10 Fahrenheit) - a far cry from our usual Florida based perspective - the comet was an easy catch as a bright fuzz ball. We recently caught our first sight of Q2 Lovejoy a few evenings ago with our trusty Canon 15x 45 image-stabilized binocs from Mapleton, Maine. Credit: Created using Starry Night Education software.Īnd the best window of opportunity for spying the comet is coming right up. ![]() Ticks mark the position of the comet at 7PM EST/midnight Universal Time. The path of Comet Q2 Lovejoy from January 2nd to the 31st. And, like the Hare for which Lepus is named, Q2 Lovejoy is now racing rapidly northward, passing into the rambling constellation of Eridanus the River before entering the realm of Taurus the Bull on January 9 th and later crossing the ecliptic plane in Aries. ![]() We also continue to be routinely blown away by reader photos of the comet. We’ve been following all Comet Q2 Lovejoy action pretty closely here at Universe Today, from its surreptitious brightening ahead of schedule, to its recent tail disconnection event, to its photogenic passage past the +8.6 magnitude globular cluster Messier 79 ( M79) in the constellation Lepus. Discovered by comet hunter extraordinaire Terry Lovejoy on August 17 th, 2014, this denizen of the Oort Cloud has already wowed observers as it approaches its passage perihelion through the inner solar system in the coming week.įirst, our story thus far. We’re talking about Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy. Have you seen the amazing pics? A bright comet graces evening skies this month, assuring that 2015 is already on track to be a great year for astronomy.
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