This morning’s forecast was again for several levels of high clouds, but at 4:33 AM my brain went off and I had to get up and look outside. One narrow roller of cirrocumulus was making it’s way from west to east, but the air was relatively clear based upon the forecast (looks like Denver may lose tomorrow’s storm?).
For a comparison to yesterday’s image with S. Table Mtn., not the position of the comet relative to the stars (especially the “L”-shaped stars near ISON in today’s image; it gives you some perspective on how far the comet moves through the star field in 24 hours.
Comet ISON over Golden, CO, 11/16/13.
Although today’s image was captured 26 minutes before yesterday’s, ISON is much closer to the horizon, and tomorrow won’t be worth getting up for due to how low in the sky it will be. Now we have a few weeks to wait and see what happens.
Comet ISON’s tail has become considerably more pronounced since yesterday, and in a dark sky environment the imaging must be much more satisfying. At 4:58 AM ISON drifted up into the cloud:
Comet ISON beneath a cloud over Golden, CO, 4:58 AM, 11/16/13.
And at 5:14 it emerged:
Comet ISON emerges from a cloud over Golden, CO, 5:14 AM, 11/16/13.
Four sequences as the sun got closer to the horizon between 5:15 and 5:49 AM:
One of the better images of ISON’s rapidly brightening tail:
Comet ISON’s rapidly brightening tail, 5:18 AM, 11/16/13.
A satellite flare recedes in the background of Comet ISON:
Satellite flare dissipates above Comet ISON, 5:30 AM, 11/16/13.
And lastly, I finally found Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) high overhead, a diffuse green blob:
Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1), 11/16/13.
We’ll pick this back up in a few weeks, cross fingers that Comet ISON doesn’t disintegrate on it’s flyby of the Sun!
