C/2013 A1 Comet how much fun is it going to be?

I have seen it mentioned in a few places now the possibility of C/2013 A1 being a bit more interesting than your average comet.

http://spacefellowship.com/news/art3251 ... -2014.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... _2014.html

http://www.gizmag.com/comet-c2013-a1-mars/26472/

Hmm, shooting stars. I wonder how much of those you get in the thin Martian atmosphere anyway?

Considering the high speed this comet is coming in at i think quite a lot from its tail tho they will be likely to be lower and more spectacular. IIRC the ones we see on earth are usually fairly high up in the atmosphere where it is quite thin anyway. It may be if there are large pieces they might land and if Curiosity is very lucky it could sample a pristine outer comet Martian meteorite. IIRC I think Spirit and Opportunity had listening gear that could detect Martian quakes if they were stationary does anybody recall if Curiosity has kit that could be used in a similar way? maybe triangulate any non catastrophic hits.

I forgot to post a link to the warm up acts one that might be naked eye visible in the next few days to a week

http://www.sen.com/news/two-visitors-fr ... cloud.html

A more authoritative link despite mainly being about Titian it mentions Martian meteors

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... titan.html

I guess I need to get a move on and get my daughter's telescope finished!

Pan-Starrs could be good on the 12 & 13th of this month in the northern hemisphere

http://phys.org/news/2013-03-comet-pan- ... azers.html

Took the kids up to the top of a parking garage this evening, but didn't see a Moon or a comet in the described position... Maybe tomorrow or later this week.

Anyone else see it in the top half of the world yet?

Nope last 2 days cloud on the horizon did not even see the moon today or more accurately yesterday in my time zone

Seems to be fainter than predicted i think most pictures seen on the net have been long exposure. i could see the moon easily tonight but could still not spot comet even with good binoculars but it could have been blocked by low haze. If you try again tonight i think it should be roughly halfway down to the horizon and slightly to the right of the crescent moon using moon as pointer.

edited to add as you are at lower latitude those directions might be off a bit at a guess i think it might be a bit higher proportionally for you.

I think I would have to travel to one of the few dark areas in this part of the country to even have a chance to see it. Oh well.

Lets hope the November/December one is brighter and a proper naked eye object.

And the Mars one next year now has odds of one in two thousand of hitting.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... marscomet/

Finally saw the Panstarrs comet tonight thru binoculars using Cassiopeia as a guide.

Linked below is the guide for yesterday but it is still in a similar area.

http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/comets/C20 ... l-2013.jpg

Thanks, SANEalex. I tried finding it with the naked eye a couple of weeks ago, but it was too close to the sun (and often too cloudy where I live). Nice to know I can pick it up with binoculars or telescope now.

I'm hoping ISON will prove to be really spectacular in December. I dabble a little in astrophotography (see my avatar), but PanSTARRS doesn't strike me as a good candidate for astropics.