Nishimura - the comet

[ChrisGreaves]

Nishimura.png

This what I am given when I plug Bonavista Newfoundland into https://theskylive.com.
I am told by https://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/nl-14_metric_e.html that up my hopes I should not get:-

Nishimura2.png

I note in passing that "chance of showers" usually means that I will not be able to collect rainwater for drinking, but the clouds will be there anyway.
I'd like to understand more about all this so I can be ready next time this comet comes around.

The RISE and SET times correspond to my understanding from other web pages that the best viewing time is an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise. Not that I shall be able to witness either of those events for the foreseeable future.

The TRANSIT seems to be within about five minutes of the interval between sunrise and sunset, so I suspect that TRANSIT means the mid-point of the comet's transit across the sky. I haven't worked out how to accurately measure this. The comet is always moving relative to the sun, and the Earth is rotating every 24 hours, and Bonavista is not exactly on the meridian for our time -zone, so there will be wobble in any top-of-the-head calculations.

But for any Lounger in Cairo this week (or at least not camping out near Tennant Creek, have I interpreted the SkyLive site data correctly?

That is, were this January, with cloudless skies, 0:5:24 and 0:20:24 would be the best times to freeze to death while staring at the skyline here?

I am not yet ready to debate the coincidence of the figures "24" and "24" in the supplied data.

Thanks, Chris

[Graeme]

Lots of information there Chris. Sunrise will follow an hour or so after the comet rises above the horizon so you only have a short window of opportunity to see it and a nice low Eastern horizon is crucial.

It's naked eye visible in a very dark sky. Here's an image:

https://www.theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?t=31826

An hour before sunrise is the only time you will see it. It will set before the Sun in the evening and it's not visible during the day. You can use binoculars but you must be very careful to put them away before the Sun comes up or you will go blind.

The transit is when it passes through your meridian. Your meridian is an imaginary line from the North pole to the South pole passing directly overhead.

I'm pretty sure the coincidence of the figures "24" and "24" in the supplied data are, just a coincidence!

Graeme

[ChrisGreaves]

It's naked eye visible in a very dark sky. Here's an image:
... An hour before sunrise is the only time you will see it. It will set before the Sun in the evening and it's not visible during the day.

Thanks Graeme.
That link includes text "Last chance to catch comet. It is low and getting closer to the Sun.", but my understanding is that once the comet has swung around the sun, I'll be able to see it an hour after sunset. A bit like Venus switching from a Morning Star to an Evening Star over a period of about nine days.

Why was/will the comet not be visible to me (presumably to My Naked Eye) during the night? Is it because by the time the comet's position has moved to my night sky, it will have moved too far away from the sun for me to see it?

"Distance from the sun" as a factor must mean "only near sunrise/set times for Earth-bound dwellers".
Am I on the right track?
Thanks again
Chris

[Graeme]

That link includes text "Last chance to catch comet. It is low and getting closer to the Sun.", but my understanding is that once the comet has swung around the sun, I'll be able to see it an hour after sunset. A bit like Venus switching from a Morning Star to an Evening Star over a period of about nine days.

And do you know what? You're quite right too! Thanks for the heads up Chris!

However you will need to wait till the Sun is below the horizon and then you won't get long before Nishimura follows it down, so you will need a very low Western horizon.


https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/comet ... tial-event