Friday, January 19, 2007

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the McNaught Comet!






One of the things I love about NZ is the clear and clean sky. During the fine weather night, you can see all the stars and the Milky Way decorating the whole skyline. On top of that, you can even see meteor showers and even comets!

For the next 3 weeks, you can see The McNaught Comet in the evening skyline. The comet, which was named after Australian astronomer Robert McNaught who discovered it last year, is expected to be visible throughout NZ at twilight. It is 124 million kilometres from Earth and is now moving away from the sun. Astronomers say it can be spotted in the southwestern sky shortly after sunset.

2 comments:

Tom said...

Those are great photos. Did you take them yourself? Looks like the top one might be from the road that goes out to Devenport from the harbour bridge (my uncle lives in Devenport).

I think I've missed the comet here in Sydney. It came through last week but both evenings when it was supposed to be good I forgot to watch! Oh well... have to wait another million years!

j said...

No, I obtained those photos from somewhere else. According to the astronomers, we can see the comet in the next 3 weeks, so you still have the chance to watch it. I am planning to take snapshots from my balcony tonight.