A comet‘stale ...

How much of the world came to miss the

greatest comet in decades

(and what communicatingastronomy with the public

may have had to do with it)

Daniel FischerFG Kometen der VdSGermany

CAP 2007Athens

Early August 2006

An inconspiciousbeginning ...

● A most promising orbit for January 2007 ... ● ... but close to the Sun all the time ...● ... and predicting comet brightnesses is an art

The first daysof January 2007:early hopes andworries (onspecialist sites)

January 1: author says -6 ...m

January 7 Astronomy buffs in mass media take notice

January 9

January 9: the first press release (from ‚someone‘) I‘ve seen!

Visual impression equal totypical digital photograph!

January 10

January 11

January 12

Phase 2:daytime

views!

End of phase 1:North, bright,small in size, low

January 13

A risky conundrum:• exceedingly rare event, but• only with very clear skies• and possibly dangerous! -> hardly mentioned at all

January 14:perihelion!-5.5 mag.!Daylight nakedeye in places!

January 15:Southern

windowabout to

open – nowwhat ...?

January 18: ½ week of greatest glory!Only at dusk – extremely wide tail –

as coma sets, tail visibility improves –clear skies essential – Moon soon

January 19

The Great SouthernObservatories awake

... with wide-angle‚amateur‘ pictures!

The best days – if weather cooperates ...

Italy!

Yet anothersurprise:

end of tailrises again formid-Northern

latitudes!

Chile

January 20„Using“ the comet for a different purpose ...

20

20

January 21:Moon returns,

best windowcloses after

some 5 days –so how was

your weather?

21

22

23

January 28: Southern (Moon-free) morning window

January 31:surfacebrightnessway downalready

February 1:one of very

few summaryreports

A rant againstcomet-ingnorantmedia onGermanMcN blog

The brightest cometsince 1965 – the firstGreat Comet of the‚modern media‘ era –why then the silence?

Reasons for the problematic coverage of the McNaught phenomenon in the general media:

• few clearcut data on nuclear behaviour for many months• general fear of ‚failing‘ comet among influentials• difficult viewing conditions for lay persons in Northern pre-perihelion window anyway (or so they thought)

But ... one could have reported much more widely

• around Jan 5: brightness increasing dramatically day after day, soon exceeding even bright planets• around Jan 9: numerous ‚discoveries‘ in high North• around Jan 12: daytime visibility (question of risk)• around Jan 15: it got three times brighter than Venus• Jan 17 to 21: breathtaking tail for Southern hemisphere

Apart from improving comet forecasting (how?) there should be ‚someone in charge‘ to tell the media about unusual visible sky events, repeatedly

A comet for the IYA?!

C/2007 N3 (Lulin) – February 17 til 28, 2009

Brightness about +5.0 mag. -> faint naked eye, easy binocular, nice small telescope view

In opposition to the Sun (elongation 170-180°)

No Moon in the sky – visible in 1st half of night

Elevation 35 ... 45° for Central Europe 70 ... 80° for Mexico 40 ... 50° for Australia

A comet for the whole planet to enjoy!