The position of the dust tail suggests larger particles were released some months prior to perihelion. Its gas tail has shown intricate, rapidly changing structure, while its dust tail appears to be lagging the comet along its orbit. In photographs, the comet will have two tails. Nonetheless, in good binoculars or a telescope, the comet should be readily visible and appear as a small, circular, hazy patch, perhaps with a bluish tinge. However, that does not factor in bright moonlight once the moon passes full phase on Christmas Day, it will become a significant hindrance, lighting up the predawn sky and then becoming less of a hindrance as it thins to a crescent after the first week of January. In other words, the comet is right at the threshold of naked-eye visibility. That means that if you were blessed with a clear and very dark sky without light pollution and knew exactly where to look, you just might be able to pick the comet out against the stars - not by looking directly at it, but by peeking with averted/peripheral vision. Right now, Comet Catalina is shining at around magnitude 6.4. However, it now appears more likely that the comet's current level of brightness will not change very much over the next month or so, at least until it passes closest to Earth during mid-January. Shortly after the comet was discovered, there was talk that it might possibly become as bright as magnitude 3, making it an easy object to see with the naked eye. 17, it will be at its closest point to Earth, at a distance of 67.4 million miles (108.4 million km). The comet is moving away from the sun, but it is now approaching the Earth. At the break of dawn, the comet will be situated roughly halfway up in the south-southeast sky. Currently, it's relatively easy to spot as it sails northward through the eastern part of the constellation Virgo. But with each passing day, the comet's visibility has slowly improved. At that time, the comet was anywhere from difficult to impossible to see because it was mired in the bright dawn light and was very low relative to the east-southeast horizon. 15, at a distance of 76.5 million miles (123 million kilometers) from the sun. Ĭomet Catalina made its closest approach about a month ago, on Nov. Researchers then found that the object in question was an inbound comet en route to the sun but still more than two years away from its closest approach to the sun (called perihelion). 31, 2013, the comet was initially thought to be an asteroid early on in a periodic six-year orbit, until more observations were received and the orbit was refined. Two telescopes, both located in southern Arizona, near Tucson, are used: a 60-inch (152 centimeters) telescope atop Mount Lemmon, and a 27-inch (69 cm) telescope near Mount Bigelow.ĭiscovered on Oct. More specifically, the goal of the CSS is to search for potentially hazardous asteroids that may pose a threat of impact. Rather, the moniker refers to the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), a project that aims to discover comets and asteroids as well as search for near-Earth objects. The comet has been named "Catalina," but it has nothing to do with a rocky island off the coast of California, or swimwear (both of which share the name).
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