Comet Siding Spring Visibility

Mars and comet siding spring were visible to the stereo a spacecraft during the 2014 encounter.

Comet siding spring visibility.

It is visible looking in the east direction at an altitude of 50 above the horizon. The first finder chart has a field of view of 50 degrees while the second one has a field of view of 10 degrees. Have a look for yourself. Comet c 2020 f8 swan captured by australia s siding spring telescope.

Edt hurtling at about 126 000 mph 56 kilometers per second. Comet siding spring nasa. C 2013 a1 siding spring is above the horizon from greenwich united kingdom. Now comet swan could deliver on the promise of a rare night sky show that atlas failed to provide.

Comet c 2020 f8 swan captured by australia s siding spring telescope. Siding spring s nucleus will come closest to mars around 11 27 a m. 19 comet c 2013 a1 also known as comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 kilometers of the red planet less than half the distance between earth and our moon and less than one tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of earth. Comet visibility in the eyepiece.

In the still image comet siding spring is visible as a faint smear just above and to the right of the brightest streak. Given its current magnitude c 2013 a1 siding spring is visible only through long exposure photography. Predicting how much aperture is required to see a comet is a very complex task. In the animation the comet moves across the image from right to left above the brightest streak.

This page uses code developed for skytools to predict the visibility of a comet in the eyepiece. In orbit around mars were the spacecraft mars reconnaissance orbiter 2001 mars odyssey esa s mars express maven and the indian mars orbiter mission mangalyaan. Several other nasa instruments on mars and in space also imaged comet siding spring s mars flyby. Comet c 2013 a1 siding spring position and finder charts.

The last two missions had arrived less than one month before the closest approach of c 2013 a1 to mars. Below we provide comet c 2013 a1 siding spring finder charts showing where the object is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars.