Home > Comet, Ephemeris Program, Planets > 10/15/2013 – Ephemeris – Correction to last Thursday’s Comet ISON program

10/15/2013 – Ephemeris – Correction to last Thursday’s Comet ISON program

October 14, 2013

Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 15th.  The sun will rise at 7:58.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 59 minutes, setting at 6:57.   The moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:21 tomorrow morning.

Last week I went out to verify the statement that Comet ISON was visible in binoculars that I talked about last Thursday.  That turned out to be incorrect.  After two failed attempts last Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from my back yard.   I had to find a darker location to out flank Traverse City and try to spot the comet with my 11 inch telescope.  The comet turned out to be a faint smudge in the indicated spot.  The sky wasn’t even dark in that direction, almost due east due to zodiacal light, visible on autumn mornings due to dust in the inner solar system.  Zodiacal light is usually hard to spot until it becomes a nuisance.  Advanced amateurs have indeed photographed it, tail and all, but visually the comet isn’t much at this stage.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Comet ISON and Mars

Comet ISON and Mars at 6 a.m. for 7 days starting October 10, 2013. Created using SkyCharts (Cartes du Ciel).

I’ll have a new weekly chart tomorrow.  Mars and Comet ISON are sliding past Regulus now.  See spaceweather.com for images of Comet ISON.  By the end of this week the Moon’s light will interfere.

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