Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, December 15th.  The sun will rise at 8:12.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:02.   The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 10:39 this evening.

Today Comet Lovejoy will pass 100,000 miles above the surface of the sun.  The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter, so that’s very close.  Will the comet survive?  Will it break into multiple pieces? Or will it evaporate in the sun’s intense heat?  To get the latest news on the internet go to Spaceweather,com or space.com.  For first hand information google SOHO  NASA.  Look for real time images.  LASCO C3 and C2 are the views you want.  These are near white light views with the sun’s face blocked out so the solar corona is visible.  The C2 view is closer in than the C3 view.  The comet will move from the lower left to upper right. And will go behind the occulting disk that hides the sun. The comet’s tail should be quite long.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.

Update 6:09 a.m.

Comet Lovejoy at 9:30 UT or 2:23 a.m. EST. Courtesy of ESA, NASA, LASCO Team.

Click image to enlarge.