The "Christmas Comet," Comet 46P/Wirtanen (NGC)

[Moto]

This comet is being hyped as "the Christmas comet" on the local news, so I went to take a look, and will now review said comet.

The location is just to the east of the Pleiades, which is a cluster that is very easy to spot once you've seen it before. (The Pleiades are above and to the right of Orion's shoulder, with the bright orangish star Aldebaran halfway in between.) The comet is just to the east of the cluster, about 3 or 4 cluster widths away. It is extremely faint for me in my suburban non-dark skies, barely visible by averted vision using my 15x70 binoculars. It is pretty large in the binoculars, but still just a diffuse patch of light.

That's my review. It's hardly worth going outside for. I recommend everyone stay inside and work on their Guzzis.

If anyone has a more impressive view in a dark area, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Moto

[kingoffleece]

Too many clouds to see it Sunday night.
Will try again tomorrow.

[Nic in Western NYS]

Finally saw the comet tonight after weeks of clouds or moonshine (not that kind of moonshine).  Modest little fellow.  Spotted him both in the 7x35s and the big rig 11x80s Sky Window with the tilting mirror.  Key fob included in photo for Guzzi content.

[yogidozer]

My parents had a 1960 Mercury Comet

[oldbike54]

My parents had a 1960 Mercury Comet

 My mind went to a single cylinder Vincent .

 Dusty

[yogidozer]

My mind went to a single cylinder Vincent .

 Dusty

Mind? 

[Moto]

Finally saw the comet tonight after weeks of clouds or moonshine (not that kind of moonshine).  Modest little fellow.  Spotted him both in the 7x35s and the big rig 11x80s Sky Window with the tilting mirror.  Key fob included in photo for Guzzi content.

Nic,

That Sky Window sure looks nice. I was on the verge of buying one based on your example a while back, but now it looks like the company may no longer make them.

I did find a very nice looking home-project version, complete with pdf plans, here, in case anyone else is tempted: http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/feature/how-guide/how-build-binocular-mirror-mount.

Moto

[Sasquatch Jim]

 So long as it doesn't hit earth I will be okay with it.