Comet Pan-STARRS and its March+ 2013 appearance

Amateur astronomers and scientists have been wondering what Comet C/2011 L4 (Pan-STARRS) would be like for almost two years. Having made its closest approach to the Sun today (Sunday March 10th), it is now being brilliantly illuminated - and is a prime target for northern hemisphere observers.

The best time to look is about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. This narrow window of viewing time is when twilight fades enough for the comet to show through at least a bit, but before it sinks too low and sets.

Tuesday March 12th
Spot the very thin crescent Moon very low in the West: the comet will be c. 3 degrees to its left.

Wednesday March 13th
Waxing crescent Moon higher up. Comet is c. 5 degree (closed fist held at arms length from your eye) below it.

Thursday March 14th
10 degrees lower right of the Moon.

Friday 15th onwards
The comet will gradually move to the right, away from the Moon, from one evening to the next as it begins to fade.





For Charts and other assistance, check out Dave Lillis's thread here .

Thanks Seanie, I had a go this evening but no luck in seeing it unfortuately, clear sky and then one big snow shower ruined it all

Keith.

A lot of people got that this evening Keith! I reckon I was one wispy cloud away from spotting it, but the damned thing just would not move out of the way... : angry:

No luck this evening in calgary anyway clear skies all day bt the last few evenings a high level cloud has been appearing over the mountains in the west when it cools down i seen the most beautiful aurora the other night though just outside grand praire i had to stop and get out to watch it i have never seen anything so spectacular.

Nice one on the aurora there Brendan,
yea, its a no show for this comet so far for sure, I went up to cratloe hill near Limerick on Monday evening, had a great horison to the west, but no way could I see this comet, had a false alarm at 18.44 when a very distant and high airliner in pretty much the right place and with almost no contrail had me going for a sec, but it was wayyyy to bright and after a minute you could see that it moved. I'm going to try again tonight, this time with binos, Reports from equatorial parts are saying it looks impressive in photographs, but visually it is almost invisible and literally on the horison !

So we'll keep on trying over the coming days and hopefully we'll get a look.

Saw the plane too. Thought I was in luck until the darn thing moved
But here's hoping for clear skies