and then there was the three-planet conjunction of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in May:
As Venus loitered in the post-sunset sky throughout the summer, Saturn marched across the sky and joined it in September, when they ultimately passed just a few degrees from one another (much closer than shown in this picture):
With all this taking place, one could be forgiven for possibly forgetting about the final act of the year: comet ISON. This comet was forecast to be the "Comet of the Century" (never mind that the century has really only barely begun - seems fairly pessimistic if you ask me) and while it has been getting brighter as it nears the Sun, it hasn't brightened to the level that was expected. It's thought that this is the maiden voyage Sunward for this particular comet from the far reaches of our solar system, and as such the relative inexperience of this comet makes it a bit tough to prognosticate about with certainty. The bottom line at the moment is that it should still be easily visible to the naked eye, even if it isn't visible during the daytime. This still makes me excited!
It only just flew past Mars on its way toward a close encounter with the Sun and has yet another month and a half yet before it loops past our star. Nevertheless, I took an eager opportunity to catch a picture of it:
The image is admittedly not great, for several reasons. The first is the unsightly lines down the center due to a column of dead pixels in the CCD I was using. Since the comet is moving, when I aligned the three comet images I took (one for each colored filter) the columns appear offset. There is really only one dead column - it just shows up three times because this is a composite of three images. I could have moved the comet off this dead column if it wasn't for the second reason: I was racing the sunrise. ISON appears early in the morning before dawn, with Mars, so by the time it's high enough to image then the Sun is preparing to make its appearance as well. This is what caused the red hue in the image: the red filter was the last image I took, so the glow of dawn produced a gradient in the image I couldn't easily remove. But regardless, I still captured it! And it's only going to get better. That is, unless it breaks up - which some believe it may. These first-time visitors to our inner solar system sometimes end up being a bit weaker in their structural integrity. We will see.
If the comet does survive and become visible to the unaided eye, here is one resource you won't want to overlook. It is an "atlas" of where to find the comet in the sky - but be warned, you will have to wake up before sunrise to see it! If ISON survives, late November and into early 2014 should be great for viewing.
In the meantime, the Orionid meteor shower peaks on October 21, although the Moon may be a bit on the bright side. As we move into the autumn months, keep your eyes on Gemini (north of Orion). You'll see an amazingly bright point of light in that constellation of the twins: that bright spot is Jupiter! This means it's time to go grab those telescopes, because it's time to watch the Galilean moons in their orbital dance, as well as time to spot the Great Red Spot. Saturn has set behind the Sun, but we now have the King of Planets to observe instead. There's always something to see. Happy viewing!
Update: Here is a better image I captured on 10/4/2013
