Comet P1 McNaught reached on January 06 magnitude -1.
The Comet is 5 mag brighter than original ephemeris predicted some weeks ago...Astronomers are predicting magnitude -7 on January 14 2007.
If this occurs this will become THE BRIGHTEST COMET EVER and will be observed during DAYLIGHT.
Its behaviour is EXTRAORDINARY!



Although this particular piece has a space on the front page, I wish to let y'all know that comets are notorious harbingers of bad things to come.
The history of peoples' reaction to comets, and their aftermath after they occur is replete with huge occurences of bad things to come. I surely hope that everyone is prepped to the 9's, and ready for what is about to befall us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3086101

"For time immemorial, man has been fascinated by the heavens, watching and recording the regular cycles of the sun and the moon. At night he identified certain patterns in the stars onto which he superimposed pictures, perhaps of familiar objects or animals. The ancient Greeks, in particular, superimposed figures representing mythological persons and events. These groupings are now known as constellations.

Many ancient cultures, including the Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese and Hindus, kept elaborate records of astronomical observations. This was thousands of years before the Christian era, thus making astronomy the oldest of the sciences.

From these records, man realised that the heavens followed certain regular patterns and he was able to use this information, for example, to determine the proper times for sowing of crops and for the celebration of religious festivals. It also made it possible to predict such regularly recurring phenomena as solar eclipses and lunar eclipses.

However, from time to time something totally unexpected would happen, such as the appearance of an object we would now know to be a comet. This must have come as rather a shock and, perhaps understandably, people came to regard such appearances as presages of some momentous event. As such events were generally calamitous in nature, people came to fear these manifestations. Some peoples believed that the heavens were about to fall down.

This early fear of comets may not be without good reason. It is quite possible that one hit the Earth in our distant past, and the memory of it has percolated through folktales into today's legends.

We are very fortunate that comets in ancient times received such close attention, for frequently when one appeared both its track and its physical appearance were recorded. The ancient Chinese, in particular, thought that comets were 'celestial ambassadors', and because of this made very careful records of their appearances and positions in the heavens. These records have subsequently been of immense service to modern-day astronomers in tracing solar comets back through many centuries.

...................................................benny ..........???

OT/MISC - The MABUS COMET?

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Hmmm, this certainly is getting interesting. This very sudden, new comet now has the potential of reaching a brightness 40 times that of Venus, and could possibly be seen in full daylight.

With all this talk of Isreal nuking Iran, there most certainly would be a great undoing of men and beasts............and a hundred hands at war.................

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/0701..._mcnaught.html


Bright New Comet Could Become Brilliant
By Joe Rao
SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
posted: 04 January 2007
12:28 pm ET


Editor's Note: Updated Jan. 5 to include a photograph of the comet.

A newfound comet is about to loop around the Sun and might offer skywatchers a rare and fantastic view. But comets are unpredictable, and this one has a wide range of possible outcomes, experts say.

When Australian astronomer Robert McNaught announced Aug. 7 that he had discovered a faint comet on a photograph taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, it was a distant and inconspicuous object. But its orbital motion at once made it clear that this comet, officially catalogued as C/2006 P1, might grow very bright right about now.

Comet McNaught's orbit [video] indicates that it will sweep to within just 15.8 million miles (25.4 million kilometers) of the Sun on Jan. 12. This rather close approach—less than half the average distance of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun—suggests the comet has the potential to briefly evolve into a bright object. The big question is, just how bright?

Brighter than Venus?

Recent estimates have ranged widely from magnitude +2.1 (about as bright as Polaris, the North Star) to a dazzling -8.8 (about 40 times brighter than Venus)!

[The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The brightest stars in the sky are categorized as zero or first magnitude. Negative magnitudes are reserved for the most brilliant objects: the brightest star is Sirius (-1.4); the full Moon is -12.7; the Sun is -26.7. The faintest stars visible under dark skies are around +6.]

The reason for the great uncertainty stems from the fact that for the past few weeks the comet has been positioned at such a relatively small angular distance from the Sun in the sky that it has been extremely difficult to get good measurements of its brightness. Now, with a little over a week to go before the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun (called perihelion), just how bright it may ultimately get and how long a tail may develop remain to be seen.

Predicting a newly discovered comet's brightness has proven historically to be difficult, especially around the time of perihelion.

Spot it now

This is the 31st comet to bear McNaught's name and at time of discovery, it was no brighter than magnitude 17—far to dim to see with the naked eye.

Observers have followed its gradual brightening as its distances from Sun and Earth decreased. It's currently both a morning and evening object, visible very low near the east-southeast horizon about 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise and very low near the west-southwest horizon about 30 to 40 minutes after sunset.

During this upcoming week, prospective observers should seek the most favorable conditions possible. Even a bright comet can be obliterated by thin horizon clouds, haze, humid air, smoke, twilight glow, city lights, or moonlight. Binoculars are strongly recommended for locating it.

But the past few days, reports suggest that Comet McNaught is becoming easier to sight even through the bright twilight glow. [Sky Maps: Morning, Evening]

Bright outlook

David Moore reported seeing the comet on New Year's Day evening from Dublin, Ireland. He writes: "After searching for over half an hour in strong twilight I saw it easily in 20x80 binoculars from an upstairs window. I could see a small fuzzy and surprisingly bright head about as bright as the mag 3.5 star Lambda Aquilae 6 degrees above it. That said, it was not an easy observation given the strong twilight and the comet was only 3.0 degrees above the horizon!"

Editor's Note
Bookmark this page so you can ...

... Follow the comet's progress in the SOHO spacecraft images starting Jan. 12.

... Learn of any significant changes to the comet's brightness, which will be noted on this page.

Also, SPACE.com will provide more details on the comet in the Jan. 12 Night Sky column.


Well-known comet observer, John Bortle of Stormville, New York caught sight of the comet just before sunrise with 15 x 80 binoculars on Jan. 2.

"My eastern view was largely obstructed by trees," Bortle said. "Still it was somewhat amazing to see the comet against such a bright sky and through all those tree branches! From experience in making similar observations, I'd judge that it was not any fainter than 2nd magnitude."

Regardless of just how bright Comet McNaught becomes, beginning on Friday, Jan. 12 and continuing through Monday, Jan. 15, it will be passing through the field of view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory ("SOHO"); a spacecraft that was launched in 1995 to study the Sun.

Astronomers hope to get spectacular views of the comet by utilizing SOHO's LASCO C3 camera, whose images can also be viewed in real time here.

...........................................benny

Benny,

Not a concidence when this comet shows up, birds start falling dead from the sky in the thousands, accompanied with 'mystery odor' ... these are the signs of volcanic activity and sesmic activity, signs of tremendous forces under the earth creating pressure, heat, and releasing gases...


Have you seen exodus decoded? Such sesmic activity is what to have thought to account for all the plagues of Egypt, including the death of the firstborn, and leaving the Hebrew slaves untouched...



Does that mean the plagues of Egypt are about to be poured out? If so, that would mean the plagues in Revelation are about to be poured out...


I'm staying tuned

Squirrelly

Did a Star lead the Magi to Bethlehem?

Did Joseph and Mary get weary of the Star following them around?

At the First Advent?

A harmless, gentle Star at the birth of our humble, suffering Servant/Savior.

A comet at His Return, heralding the End of the Age of Grace? Time to repent and get saved?
What is Shekel's ministry about? And the ministry of Timothy Snodgrass?
They both say: Repent and be saved, before it's too late.

Uh.... ME TOO! HECK YEAH! Come Lord Jesus, COME!