Dragging Its Tail

I’m a long time star gazer.  I’m not a student of the sky and don’t know all the star formations but I love to go out at night and see what there is to see.

Usually, and I am not sure why this happen, if there is going to be a major sky event, it is either cloudy or raining or bitter cold.  This week, however, I got lucky.  The comet Pan-STARR has been visible several evenings, right after sunset, in the western sky.  The first evening the sky was clear and I didn’t know about the comet.  Learned about it on the TV weather about 4 hours too late.  Second night, it was cloudy.  Third night, I not only saw it but took a picture.  Very nice.  It barely shows up in the picture but I know it’s there and I’m glad I was able to see and capture it.  Fourth night, cloudy again.  The next comet visible in North America will be ISONS this November. 

If you like to look at sky spectaculars, there are some good websites to help you out:

www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013 and www.stardate.org

There are many others, of course.  These two have good information and nice pictures and some videos.

 You may also, like me, be a fan of meteor showers.  The Quadnantids are in January and I froze sitting out on the deck in the middle of the night to see them this year.  But it paid off big time.  Saw some beauties.  Coming up are the Lyrids, best seen on the night of April 21st and Eda Aquarids on the nights of May 4th and 5th.  Those will probably be best seen early morning.

I wish you clear skies, warm evenings, and a good pair of binoculars.