Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

How stupid are these people?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Books are my comfort food!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Bark louder, little dog.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Comet PanSTARRS

Comet PanSTARRS

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Here are a few resources for our Northern Hemisphere readers for locating Comet PanSTARRS this weekend and into next week. It’s going to be low on the western horizon shortly after sunset for the next few days.

* Sky and Telescope’s locator chart and Space.com’s writeup.

* SkyMaps printable full sky chart (download the March 2013 PDF)

* Stellarium is a good free planetarium software for Mac, PC and Linux. Here’s a discussion thread telling you how to find PanSTARRS.

* This is the best weather resource to figure out if it’s going to be cloudy in the next day or two.

This is one of the few times that living in the South is a good thing: PanSTARRS will be higher in the sky as you get closer to the Equator.

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  1. 1.

    Cassidy

    OT, but still sciencey….can one of our FPer science persons do a post on the 3d printing of food? I’m interested in the topic but don’t really understand some of what I’ve read.

  3. 3.

    Ramalama

    Speaking of Northern Hemisphere, I once woke up early to go to work and was terrified by the goings on in the sky. It looked like the spotlight in Montreal that greets all visitors who arrive by car or bus. But we were too far away from that. The lights had colors. They came from inside the sky poking out. I believed it was possible that they signalled the end of the world. I did nothing about it. I drove with my hands gripping the steering wheel until dawn came round and then I forgot about it. And later that weekend at a barbecue everyone was talking up the Aurora Borealis event. All of which confirms that I am deeply in touch with my inner idiot.

  4. 4.

    Juju

    Wow. I’ll be out comet hunting this weekend. I can’t wait for the comet that is supposed to be here in November.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    In addition to the light show, not freezing your ass off is another advantage to living down South.

    Kind of on topic: I know jack and shit about astronomy, but I’m finding this spate of asteroid close-shaves alarming. Maybe we could stop building war machines and put some money into more space telescopes and interceptor technology? Just a thought.

  6. 6.

    the Conster

    I loved living with Hyakutake. That thing was so bright for so long, but after just seeing the movie Melancholia I’m not sure I want to live with a bright new thing in the sky any more.

  7. 7.

    mistermix

    @Betty Cracker: Don’t worry, they put $5 million American dollars into NASA’s asteroid search program after the last close call, so that problem is completely solved.

  8. 8.

    Juju

    Hale-Bopp was the bright comet about 15 years ago. Hyakutake was visible just before Hale-Bopp, but harder to see. I had to get up at 4:00am drive to a plowed field and stand on my car to see it. All I had to do to see Hale-Bopp was to stand outside.

  10. 10.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Juju:

    All I had to do to see Hale-Bopp was to stand outside.

    I remember standing inside and seeing Hale-Bopp through the sliding door.

  12. 12.

    Redshirt

    @Betty Cracker: I wrote about this after the Russian meteorite incident, which really should be a gigantic wake up call for us all.

    It is inevitable we’ll get hit by something major, and our entire species is at risk. Since we could do something about this if had the will, it seems incumbent upon us to do so.

    Also, I’m on Team ISON.

  13. 13.

    G. Galilei

    Your Eminence,
    Thank you for the wonderful links. I shall be sure to use them (discretely, of course).

  14. 14.

    Rosie Outlook

    @Juju: I had a long commute back then, and could watch Hale-Bopp all the way home, even in daylight.

  15. 15.

    Trollhattan

    Photo forum thread with comet photos taken by an Aussie.

    forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3358788

    It didn’t brighten up as much as was hoped, but there’s still something very compelling about seeing one. I remember a magical evening eating dinner in a restaurant courtyard with Hale-Bopp blazing in the evening sky.

    Need to figure out how to escape the city lights and haze to go watch this one.

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