Two Comets to Glow in the Spring Sky (Forwarded)

Sky & Telescope
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Contact:
Alan MacRobert, Senior Editor
617-864-7360 x151,

Press Release: April 27, 2004

Two Comets to Glow in the Spring Sky

Seven years have passed since Comet Hale-Bopp graced the evening sky in the
spring of 1997. Now not just one but two new comets are heading into springtime
view -- though they won't come near Hale-Bopp for brightness and grandeur. In
fact, no one yet knows whether they'll reach naked-eye visibility for most
people in North America and Europe. But even if they don't, anyone should be
able to catch them with binoculars.

But you'll have to know when and where to look. Sky & Telescope magazine
provides complete instructions. Sky & Telescope's editors are tracking the
comets' brightnesses and will post updates on the magazine's Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, in the coming weeks so that no one need miss this spring's
comet show.

Here is an overview of what to expect.

The two arriving visitors are named Comet LINEAR and Comet NEAT, after the
search programs that found them (Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, which
uses a pair of telescopes in New Mexico, and the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking
program, which uses telescopes in California and Hawaii). Right now, Comet
LINEAR is hard to find in the bright glow of dawn just above the eastern horizon
before sunrise, and Comet NEAT is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. But
that will soon change.

For now, in the final week of April and the first few days of May, North
American and European skywatchers do have a shot at spotting Comet LINEAR before
dawn on clear mornings. Scan with binoculars just above the horizon due east
about 60 minutes before your local time of sunrise.

(There's a chance that you may detect another comet, Comet Bradfield, somewhat
to the left of LINEAR on April 24th and for the next few mornings. But your
chances for this one are slimmer.)

In subsequent weeks both LINEAR and NEAT will come into in the evening sky,
where they'll be in more convenient view.

Starting around May 5th or 6th, scan for Comet NEAT just above the southwest
horizon as evening twilight fades. You're looking for a small, fuzzy "star" with
a small tail pointing to the upper left. (The much brighter star Sirius will
also be low in the southwest; on May 5th the comet will be not far to its left,
and on May 6th the comet will be to Sirius's upper left.) In the next two weeks
Comet NEAT will get much higher in the southwest at nightfall, though it will
also fade. Binocular users may be able to follow it through the end of May.

Around May 26th or 28th, Comet LINEAR could steal the show when it too enters
the evening sky. Look for it just above the west-southwest horizon as twilight
fades. It will get only a little higher in the following week or two, while
fading rapidly.

Full details, including charts showing when and where to look for both comets
(from the Southern Hemisphere too!) appear in the May 2004 issue of Sky &
Telescope and in the online article "The Double Comet Show of 2004",
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing...cle_1229_1.asp

Sky Publishing Corp. was founded in 1941 by Charles A. Federer Jr. and Helen
Spence Federer, the original editors of Sky & Telescope magazine. The company's
headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics. In addition to Sky & Telescope and its Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, the company publishes Night Sky, a new bimonthly magazine
for beginners, with a Web site at NightSkyMag.com; two annual magazines,
Beautiful Universe and SkyWatch; an annual wall calendar called Celestial
Wonders; as well as books, star atlases, posters, prints, globes, and other fine
astronomy products.