[meteorite-list] How to Watch July 4 Comet Impact

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jun 3 17:16:16 2005
Message-ID: <1ad.390f6d6d.2fd221e2_at_aol.com>

I wrote:

>and will be quite bright (Mercury 0th magnitude - same as a bright Mars and
>2.5X more than Saturn). Not to mention Venus near her brightest ever at
>-4th magnitude.
 
"Venus near her brightest ever", no. Mercury today, June 3, is at her
conjunction with Earth on the opposite side of the Sun as we are. So today
Mercury is at her brightest of the year and I had that on my mind.

But Venus is always so bright it doesn't matter, and most of us haven't seen
her in a while in the night sky. Venus will actually be 40 times brighter
than Mercury on June 27 during the event. For those lucky and creative enough
to have viewing angles from earth to get a look at Mercury in earlier June,
Mercury will be bright. Today June 3, if you could only glimpse her, she is
about as bright as Jupiter to us! (The inner planets are brightest at
conjunction - when furthest from earth on the opposite side of the Sun making it
usually impossible to see, while the asteroids and outer planets are brightest
at opposition, the same side of the Sun as us and the whole surface back to
us.)

Just imagine how bright Venus is as seen from Mercury when they are in
opposition!) The answer is -6.7, just about the same Earth looks to Venusian
observers on a clear day:), with our Luna being as bright as Jupiter to treated
Venusians... And this Venusian view of Earth and the Moon view from Venus
will approximated, though 3 times dimmer and with a very comparable but somewhat
larger separation, with that great view of Venus and Mercury on June 27 that
I've been yapping all about...Talk about unfair ... Earth from Venus is 7
times brighter than Venus from Earth at the maxes and that doesn't even
consider Luna. Anyway, There are probably 20 different asteroids this year that
will be brighter than the Comet at a +10 magnitude before impact on July 4, and
comets are harder to find than asteroids. So here's hoping that fireworks
are in store, though if nothing fancy happens, hoping at least we get a few
copper meteorites out of this sooner or later...
Saludos, Doug
 
Received on Fri 03 Jun 2005 05:13:06 PM PDT