12/15/11 – Ephemeris – Comet Lovejoy will skim past the sun today
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.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 
As of 11:30 EST -3 magnitude. As bright as Jupiter, which I can see through a 50mm finderscope durning the day, getting brighter. You think we will see this thing?
Hi Scott,
Maybe on top of a mountain. It’s awfully close to the sun, which sure lights up the sky near it. Maybe if it survives. It will head north for a while so we can see it.
Bob
I went chasing the setting sun tonight in the off chance it might be visable as the sun set. No luck finding a whole in the clouds much less seeing the comet in the suns glare.