A few days ago, on the evening of 12 March 2013, I helped with a public event in Jackson, TN, to observe Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS. We even had a reporter from the local TV station WBBJ (channel 7) in attendance. Two friends from the Forked Deer Astronomy Group, Eric Geater and David Fesmire, and I set up our scopes at the Liberty Garden Park & Arboretum parking lot about 7:15pm and waited for darkness. A thin crescent Moon helped immensely. We spotted the 28 hour old Moon around 7:30pm and found the comet shortly thereafter about 4-5 degrees to the left of the Moon and maybe half a degree higher. I spotted the Moon first in my 7×35 binoculars and then the comet in the 10×60 finder scope on my 18″ Obsession. Through the scope the comet was very nice with a bright fuzzy nucleus and a dimmer coma surrounding it. It also had a short tail that became easier to see as it got darker. We were able to watch it and show it off to the public for a half hour or so before it nosedived into the trees and buildings. It was so low to the horizon we were literally sitting on the ground looking through the eyepiece of the telescope. I was quite pleased to get this good of a look. It was still just barely naked eye through all the city light pollution but was probably much better in dark country skies. Below is a sketch I made later from memory.
According to what I am reading about the comet, it is a first time visitor to the inner solar system, taking millions of years to get here from the Oort cloud, nearly a light year from the Sun. As it leaves our vicinity and heads back out toward the abyss, its new orbit has been calculated at about 106,000 years. Mark your calendars…
