Comet McNaught

Comet McNaught is in the sky these days.. brightest one to naked eyes since last 30 years. Its becoming more and more brighter.. Its traveling so close to sun that most of its material is evaporating.. increasing its luminosity..

In northern hemisphere, (USA/India) it was visible till Jan 14th.. I watched it couple of times.. It was awesome site.. I have watched Shoemaker-Levy, Hyakutake and Hale-Bop before.. but McNaught is the best one for me... My father used to tell me stories from his childhood about some comet and about its tail.. He doesn't remember the name.. I believe it must be Ikeya-Seki .. any way.. now I also have stories about comet McNaught to tell him about and I have already bored him a lot on the phone :)

Now, McNaught has finished orbiting behind the sun and again visible from southern hemisphere.. and it is at its best... its just fabulous.. Its tail is going in a curvature.. leaving dust streaks behind.. kind of showing its circular orbit around the sun.. infact now its extravagant..

I have seen pictures of various comets.. but none was like this one.. Pictures from southern hemisphere are pouring on spaceweather. Also take a look at the pictures taken by original discoverer Rob McNaught. .. Just beautiful !!

Checkout this video taken by sun watching spacecrafts SOHO and STEREO

Goshh.. I should have been on southern side... I am really missing this !!

Photo credit: R. H. McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory