Friday, January 13, 2012

Can you see Comet Levy?

Tonight before moonrise at 10:30 p.m., binocular uses can spot something a little different. 19 million mile distant Comet Levy lies about one binocular field of view below bright Jupiter. (Jupiter is the brightest object shining high in the southwest.) The comet should appear as a dim smudge. View it again on Saturday and Sunday nights. It will have moved.

The moon moves in our sky near Mars tonight. Then on Monday morning, the moon, sporting a third quarter phase, lies next to Saturn and Spica, forming a tight triangle with them. Saturn appears to its left while the similarly bright Spica sits just above the lunar half disk.

Such is our view from Earth...

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