Re: Comet 2006 M4 (SWAN) had brightened dramatically

In article <1161853510.050279.3630@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
<boo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Paul Schlyter wrote:

Anyway, easily found it with 7x50 binocs. Ho Hum.
Frankly I found it underwhelming.

That's probably because you viewed it from light polluted skies.


The skies were not super dark, but they were not
terrible either. I could just see all the stars in the little
dipper. I clearly remember seeing both Bopp and
Hyakutake from city skies of similar darkness and
they were much more impressive and obvious.

That's because they were brighter.... :-) .....after all, you cannot
expect a mag 4 to 5 comet to be as impressive as a mag zero comet!

And I don't think anyone claimed Comet SWAN to be a "Great Comet".

(...)
What's the definition of a 'Great' comet? Easy, one that
even non-astronomy dorks notice. Unfortunately Swan
doesn't make the grade.

As light pollution steadily gets worse year after year,
your requirements of a comet to be 'Great' will increase.


It's not so much that light pollution is getting worse -
many areas are already saturated - as it is the afflicted
area growing.

What do you mean with "saturated"? There's no upper limit to
artificial light leve, is it? At some point you don't see any
stars of course, but then you at least see Venus and Jupiter, until
the light pollution gets so bad that you no longer see any difference
between night and day....

A century or more ago, non-astronomy dorks would have noticed
a comet like Comet Swan.

Unfortunately those days are over.

For now, yes - let's hope this is not a permanent state.

Btw, the reason non-astronomy dorks would have noticed Comet Swan
a century ago isn't just because of the dark skies back then, it's
also because then people in general knew the constellations to a much
greater extent than today.

Eric

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