Comet 46P/Wirtanen 2018

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There's a comet coming! It's expected to reach peak brightness toward the end of this week.

It's not a "Great Comet" — it will probably be just barely visible to the naked eye. But it will be the brightest comet of 2018 and should be easily seen through binoculars.

Has anyone taken a look yet? Here's some location info:

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/c ... -2018.html

This is what it looks like about now through a telescope:

Frustratingly cloudy here. Anyone have any luck?

Thanks for the information. I will have to check it out.

clear here, but your link is for St. Louis. I am in S FL

google searches indicate the comet is most visible the night of the 16th:

Viewers can see the bluish green Comet 46P/Wirtanen this Sunday, Dec. 16 when it passes closest to Earth in its orbit.

But we are also just past the peak of the geminids, and we have seem some large, slow meteors here.

Man, I forgot about the Geminid meteor shower. Unfortunately, it's cloudy and rainy here through tomorrow.

I hate it when I do that! I sympathize. It is rainy and cloudy here too now. A cold front came in. Maybe it will clear by tomorrow night.

Did you see the solar eclipse last year? I traveled to Wyoming to see it. Awesome, in the literal meaning of the word.

I didn't see it, unfortunately. I only lived about 145 miles away from the path of totality, too.


As far as the Geminids, I may get to catch the tail end of the showers. I'm going on an overnight backpack on Monday, so I'll in the perfect spot to hopefully see a little bit of the show. And the skies are supposed to be clear!

I see you are in Illinois. I grew up there. I recall that the masses gathered in St. Louis for the eclipse were shut out by clouds.

Have a great time on your trip and good luck with the meteors.

We had party cloudy skies where I live. I think close to 98% of the sun was eclipsed -- still rather interesting.

Thanks! It's going to be a cold night, but a nice fire should help.

I live near Seattle. nuff said.

So, you're thinking that's where it's going to strike?

I remember that eclipse. My wife said, "remember to not look directly at the sun". So obviously when the eclipse began, I had to experiment. I tried recording the eclipse using a pinhole. It worked but not very impressive. I went inside and found an infrared lens filter and held it over the video camera lens. It was a little like juggling three things at once but it worked. I zoomed the camera into the sun, recorded the eclipse and didn't damage my eyesight in the process.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen is approaching Earth for an historic encounter on Dec. 16th--one of the 10 closest comet flybys of the Space Age. But it is not projected to strike Earth. Its nearest approach is 7,199,427 miles. The distance between the earth and the moon (LD) is 238,900 miles. So at its closest, this small comet will be 30 times further than the moon.

My comet er comment was intended as a joke of sorts. Seattle is infamous for having grey skies.

More rain and sleet, and no comet.