Star gazing

Thats a black hole in your mirror , not a comet Rosco.

That explains why it swallows all in its path. Galvanised bur, stirrup irons, dingo bones etc etc..... worst of all, Herself reckons it's where old Goannas go to die.Fidei defensor

Rosco

Why do you shave?????????????Willem
Out on the Gibber

The site here
contains a demonstration version of some pretty good planeterium software which may be of assistance.

Eq.

There is an interesting site called link text that has star charts available.Hilux Dualcab, 3 litre diesel

There are quite a few websites that will give you info - some are in laymans terms while others are more technical. If you use Google, just do a search for 'observable comets in 2004' and you will be able to choose a site that you should be able to understand.

There are conflicting predictions on some of these sites as to the exact path of the comets due to the fact that it is the first known visit each of them has made to the inner solar system, but in general terms they will be visible in the western sky just after nightfall in the vicinity of Sirius or possibly a bit more to the north which will put them into the constellation Cancer. In terms of celestial distances, they will be reasonably close to Earth - within 50 million kilometres. To most people, that is a bloody long way, but when you consider that the nearest star to Earth (apart from our sun) is around 43 trillion kilometres away, these comets are virtually in our backyard.

Even though C4 NEAT will be at it's predicted brightest magnitude on May 5, there is a full moon that night which will make it a bit harder to view. If the best of predictions are correct, both comets should be observable on May 15 (no moon) and reasonably close to one another which makes it a rare occurrance.

Diesel1

Yeah - you're just about spot on there Dave - looking to the east it is just below and a bit to the south.

Diesel1

Sirius is the main star....the program shows the dog ( looks somewhat like a Rottweiler) lying down but to our view in an upside down position.
Hopefully we will be able able to see it in May as once you are 2km out of town you are in the outback!

Cheers,Willem
Out on the Gibber

G'day Willem,

You shouldn't have any problems seeing these comets apart from a full moon on May 5. According to my calculations using astronomy software, the best night will be May 15 when they both should be observable in approximately the same area. The best viewing platform will be anywhere from around the red centre north, but should be observable at lower lattitudes.

Diesel1