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Astronomy

Friday, January 4, 2013

'New' Comet ISON May Outshine the Moon

The comet was discovered by two amateur astronomers in September. Plus, ways Largo residents can explore the night skies.

Forget the Hunter's Moon in 2013? Local skywatchers may be in store for a spectacular Hunter's Comet — the newly discovered comet ISON. OK, it does not have the marquee name of Halley's Comet. But sky watchers and astronomers are seeing stars when they talk about ISON. A NASA astronomer says ISON's fiery tail may be visible to those watching the night sky from October 2013 through January 2014. And the comet may hover into view without the help of a telescope. It all depends on whether the sun's heat vaporizes ices in the comet's body, scientists say in an article posted in the Huffington Post. Comet ISON will fly within 1.2 million miles from the sun's center on Nov. 28, 2013, astronomer Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Object …

Nicholas Underwood

4:44 pm on Friday, January 4, 2013

The latest updates on Comet ISON and Comet PANSTARRS can be followed at http://cometinformer.com   more ›

Monday, June 4, 2012

Venus in Transit to Put on Celestial Show Tonight

You'll probably be dead the next time this happens, so watch it on Tuesday evening.

A little after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, residents of our area will have an opportunity to witness one of the rarest predictable celestial events: the 2012 transit of Venus. Often referred to as the "Evening Star" or "Morning Star," Venus is the brightest natural object in our sky after the sun and the moon.  A "transit" of Venus occurs when Venus passes between us and the sun and we can see Venus' silhouette backlit by the sun's brilliant light. It last happened in 2004, but it won't happen again until 2117. Unless you plan to shatter some human longevity records, this is probably your last chance. Were Venus either large enough or close enough to block out the sun's light as it passed, we would call this event an eclipse, as we do when the moon…

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