I was biking home from Wilder Ranch late today, enjoying the orange sunset against the steel gray surf, when I noticed a larger than usual number of people staring at the last bit of day's light, many of them with binoculars and cameras focused on the horizon line. Somehow I had missed the news that a comet was scheduled to put on a show in the western sky. Nearly 10 years after comet Hale-Bopp led to a strange suicide pact, another bright comet would be gracing the early evening sky.
I pulled my bike over to the railing and joined the crowd staring with expectation at the horizon line. According to the buzz, Comet McNaught would be visible any second very low in the western sky shortly after sunset . The night before, some said, it was bright enough that observers could see it with the unaided eye.
I pulled my bike over to the railing and joined the crowd staring with expectation at the horizon line. According to the buzz, Comet McNaught would be visible any second very low in the western sky shortly after sunset . The night before, some said, it was bright enough that observers could see it with the unaided eye.
Yes! There is was, and then it was gone. After that glimpse, I don't think I've ever witnessed a more spectacular sunset, the sky turning a deeper and deeper orange until I felt myself practically vibrating under its spell.
A comet is a small body in the solar system that orbits the sun and at least occasionally exhibits an atmosphere and/or a tail — both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comet's nucleus, which itself is a minor body composed of rock, dust, and ices. From the Greek word komē, meaning "hair of the head," Aristotle first used the derivation komētēs to depict comets as "stars with hair."
There are some terrific images at this site:
www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught.htm
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