Comets ISON and Lovejoy

isonstacked-3-alan-mason
Comet 2012 S1 ISON – image by Alan Mason
lovejoy-zoom-alan-mason
Comet 2013 R1 Lovejoy – image by Alan Mason

Cotswold AS member Alan Mason managed to capture both Comet 2012 S1 ISON and 2013 R2 Lovejoy this month.

Lovejoy has been a relatively accessible object, being fairly high in the morning sky.

Comet ISON has been a bit trickier, being fairly low. If there are any clear mornings this week, it may be worth trying to observe for ISON in the early morning, 30 minutes before dawn. It will be at perihelion on November 28 (and un-observable for the couple of days around this), and will probably become visible in the morning again from December 1. What will we see then ? Well we just don;t know – it could be spectacular – it could be a damp squib.The only way to be sure will be to get up early and have a look!