Monday, December 9, 2013

Comet Lovejoy Still Bright

Comet Lovejoy continues to burn. Currently in the Corona Borealis it is dimming from its earlier appearance in Leo. Nevertheless, the comet is still fun to follow as he moves through the different star fields. Today's ephemeris are:RA 16 05 08 and the Declination is +34 41 55
What do the numbers mean? RA stands for Right Ascension. That designation refers to longitudinal lines superimposed on the sky. In other words, the numbers given are written in hours, minutes and seconds.
Yes, you've guessed right--Declination is equivalent to latitude and is written in degrees. The listed positions puts the comet squarely between  Kappa and Tau, the two stars on the upper border of the Corona. Both stars shine at nearly 5th magnitude.  The comet itself is dimmer. If you would like to follow the ephemeris which are calculated cometary orbits here is the link: 
http://in-the-sky.org/cometephem.php?obj=ck13r010 

Here's a page of Edmund's Mag 6 Star chart. It shows the RA and Dec. The pencil marks are the comet's position as seen two days ago.

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