Comet SWAN as captured by Pete Lawrence

May 5, 2020 at 9:44 am

It might prove tricky, but see if you can spot Comet C/2020 F8 Swan racing across the Eastern Skies

Comet C/2020 F8 Swan will be gracing the Eastern skies during May and into June 2020, although it might prove tricky to spot. Discovered in images taken by the SWAN camera aboard the Solar Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) spacecraft on 25 March 2020, the comet reaches perihelion on 27 May.

At the start of May, it was estimated to be a fraction brighter than mag. +6, putting it within naked eye territory. By late May, preliminary estimates suggest it may brighten to around mag. +3. By 8th May, It's already brightened below +4 magnitude. 

Observing it will be a balancing act due to where the comet is located in the sky versus the onset of evening, morning and Twilight. 

As luck would have it, the comet is expected to reach its peak brightness between 20-22 May.

On the night of 29/30 May, comet C/2020 F8 Swan moves into Auriga approximately 4.5 degrees to the west of Capella (Alpha Aurigae). It continues east, curving south as it goes, to pass one degree south of Capella on the night of 2/3 June.

Visibility for this comet will be complicated by the part of the sky it is in and the proximity of its appearance to the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice (Sun is furthest North on top of the tropic of Capricorn) on 20 June.

On May 12th the comet will breeze some 83 million kilometers (52 million miles) from Earth and come to perihelion on May 27th at a distance of 64 million kilometers (40 million miles) from the Sun. During the second week of May SWAN will stand just a few degrees high in the eastern sky 90 minutes to 2 hours before sunrise for the central U.S. By May 21st its altitude increases to around 5° and subsequently declines at month's end.

Check the Eastern Skies around 4.30 - 5.10 in the morning and if the skies clear in Sri Lanka, you will be able to experience this magnificent comet. 

Comet ATLAS - view from Sri Lanka

Comet ATLAS has faded away. It never reached the expected brightness and scientists believe that the comet disintegrated to smaller pieces making it fade. 

However, we got a new comet - SWAN. it has brighten to magnitude 5 already. So, lets keep fingers crossed. I will have a separate page on it. 

We are SO OVERDUE for a decent - read visible to the unaided eye - comet in the Northern Hemisphere. Maybe, just MAYBE, our wait is over. Comet ATLAS has been brightening quite nicely and is currently visible in binoculars.

The comet is in the northern sky right now near the Big Dipper. See the star chart below.

Comet Atlas is racing toward the inner solar system, and it could become the brightest comet seen in the night sky in over two decades. The comet, discovered by an observatory designed to protect Earth from asteroids, may even be visible during the day just two months from now.

Also known as C/2019 Y4, this comet was discovered by astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii in December 2019. At the time, the comet was exceedingly dim — but the comet became 4,000 times brighter in just a month. This increase is far greater than astronomers predicted, and could potentially signal the comet may soon be exceptionally bright.

Comet ATLAS proved a close match to the Great Comet of 1844 (C/1844 Y1). Both have periods around 4,000 years, approach within 0.25 astronomical unit (a.u.), or 37.4 million kilometers, of the Sun at perihelion, and are inclined 45° to the ecliptic. These and other orbital similarities were strong enough to conclude that both objects were fragments of a single, much larger comet that broke apart about 5,000 years ago. For all we know there may be additional fragments en route for future appearances.

It is expected that the comet will continue to brighten, and it is possible the comet may be visible to the naked eye sometime in April or May 2020. It will reach its nearest point to Earth on May 23 and come to perihelion (closest to the Sun) on May 31.

Watch this space and register to SkyAbove news alert (SMS - "REG SKY" to 77000 on your phone) for further details on position of the comet.

So, it is understood that comet Atlas has disintegrated and below pictures prove it. 

Comet Wirtanen

Comet-Wirtanen- as seen through telescope on 11-4-2018

photo credit Martin Mobberley

46P / Wirtanen is a small short-period comet with a current orbital period of 5.4 years. It was the original target for close investigation by the Rosetta spacecraft, planned by the European Space Agency, but an inability to meet the launch window led to Rosetta being sent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko instead.It belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, all of which have aphelia between 5 and 6 AU. Its diameter is estimated at 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi)

Comet Wirtanen is expected to be one of the very few coments that would be visible to the naked eye for sometime.

The Comet will be visible throughout the nights from November to December with naked eye visibility in Mid parts of December. 

The comet would reach the closest point to earth on the 16th of December 2018 and will be visible there on till Jan 2019. This will be a good opportunity to view a Comet as there will be no identified naked eye visible Comet for sometime. 

Watch this space for general information and subscribe to the skyabove SMS alert if you are a Sri Lankan to get more accurate details.

Meteor Showers

A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky (a "shooting star" or a "falling star") produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere. If you have a dark clear sky you will probably see a few per hour on an average night. During one of the annual meteor showers you may see as many as 100/hour. Very bright meteors are known as fireballs - if you see one please report it.

Meteor showers are formed usually by the dust particle or debris left by comets.

When comets come closer to the Sun, the particles evaporate forming the famous tails we love to observe. Such particles get left behind to form the meteor showers.

As illustrated in above picture, the Preseids Meteor shower origins from Comet Swift Tuttle and we see the meteor shower radiant from Constellation Preseus, Hence the name.

One might get frustrated trying to experience a meteor shower as it is not similar to raindrops falling. Usually, a very good meteor shower would produce around 120 meteors per hour. i.e. around 2 per second. However, the meteors, though originating from a precise location, could appear anywhere in the sky as the location it enters the atmosphere and the size of the particle would be the deciding factor of whether we would be able to observe it. Usually, Meteor showers are best visible during very dark time of the night and with less light pollution - a full moon is a big negative factor to observe a meteor shower.

There are many meteor showers that occur during a calendar year and some of the famous ones happen in January, August and December. Some are listed below

January - Quadrantid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around January 2nd

April - Lyrid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around 22nd April

August - Preseids Meteor Shower - Peaks around 12th August

October - Orionoids Meteor Shower - Leftovers from Comet Halley - peaks around 21st October

December - Geminid Meteor Shower - One of the Brighter showers - usually peaks around 13th December

Below is a meteor that was caught on tape on 2nd June 2018 - suspected Daytime Arietids Meteor Shower !!

There are many more meteor showers that happen during a year and all are communicated to the alert application for the benefit of Sri Lankan public.