This beautiful new view of Comet ISON comes from a collaborative effort between astrophotographers Cliff Spohn in Ohio and Terry Hancock in Michigan, taken on October 21, 2013. “The first time in almost two weeks that we have had a break in the clouds and rain we could not miss this rare opportunity to capture ISON using Cliff’s equipment,” said Terry via email. “Credit goes to Cliff for capturing the object while I did the calibration, stacking in CCDStack post processing in CS5 and video editing.”
You can see a timelapse video below, covering 93 minutes of imaging, again on October 21. It’s obvious ISON is still intact and it continues to bright, as it is currently about magnitude 9.
More recent images:
Update: This new one is just in from astrophotographer Damian Peach, and its a beauty! Taken on October 24.
Warrenton, Virginia 6:27am EST
Canon Rebel Xsi & 170mm lens F6.3, ISO 400,
6 minutes 6 secs. Credit and Copyright: John Chumack.
From John Chumack: “I just had to try just a telephoto on Comet ISON while it was near Mars,” John said via email. This view shows Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) near Mars and Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. This image was taken on October 18, 2013 from
Warrenton, Virginia at 6:27am EST looking over Washington D.C.
This nice image comes from Chris Schur from Arizona, taken on October 14, and is also of the conjunction. “As you may recall, on this date of 10/14 the three objects were in a perfect line going from south to north in Leo,” Chris said via email. “What a spectacular sight in the 11 x 80 binoculars! While the comet was quite faint, a short 1/4 degree of tail could be seen, and the gorgeous blue and orange colors of the planets.”
Chris used a Canon Xti, ASA800 with 10 minutes total integration time, with a 80mm f/4.8 Ziess APO refractor on a Televue GEM. Taken from Payson, Arizona at 5,100 feet elevation.
Well… It’s 7:25 A.M. 10.26.13 Just got back inside after spending a couple hours looking for C. ISON. No joy.. the moon… dzzzz.. the MOON is in it’s last quarter in Gemini, next to Leo and totally washing out that part of the sky. Drat! Comets are fickle like that…. especially the dimmer (mag.8 or less) ones. Maybe better best wait for a couple more days? Stupid moon……. ~@; P
Wasn’t ISON the comet of the century? Or is it going to be the next “¿Where is PANSTARRs”?
im in tennesse and have been looking for comet ison for months with only my eyes i have clear skys i can c perfect mars is very visible ive been looking at the sky at night my whole life and its amazing how clearly i can now c mars its a bright orange dot in the sky ive never been able to spot it before but now all of a sudden its there all bright and orange and its said that comet ison or planet niburu is much larger than mars and just made a close pass by the planet then why is it i can not c it or even faintly c it where is it now i was one of the first to c the spot which looked like a planet behind the sun last year i was very visiblewhen you wore sunglasses or looked threw tinted windows at it i believe somethings going on this is the first time im reaching out to talk about this if anybody has answers or just anything please email me at [E-mail address removed for your own protection] or facebook me at tim rathbun
I’m in Idaho, and I knew nothing of comet Ison until last night, I was star-gazing, and happened to glimpse a blue streak, right above my head. It was extremely small, and quick. I’ve only ever seen “shooting stars” and I knew this was different. Was it a comet? And if it was, was it comet Ison? I plan on going out tonight, and seeing if the position that it is in ( between constellation Virgo and Leo ) was where I saw this. I am so excited! Just curious of what I saw.