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Night skies should be clear Saturday and Sunday night, giving Marylanders a fair shot at seeing Comet Machholz, now climbing the evening sky toward the star cluster known as the Pleiades, or "Seven Sisters." Amateur astronomer Tim Hickman has already photographed the comet from Timonium. Here's his picture.
You may need binoculars unless skies where you are are very dark. A small telescope would be a bonus. Here's everything you need to know.
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff
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Comments
No you did not cover it up to quickly. Look for it to get cold by January 23rd , with the possibility of accumulating snow, and it will stay chilly, especially around the 27th. Late January will be different then early January just like December was. I believe this is a repeatable weather pattern that is space weather related.
Posted by: Jim Hughes | January 7, 2005 11:38 AM
I was outside tonight at about 8 p.m. and found Machholz easily with binoculars. It is not a naked-eye object from my location. Too many lights. But it's hanging there just west of the Pleiades, as advertised, a fuzzy blob of light with no tail visible to me. With my binocs I was able to get it into the same field of view as the star cluster. Beautiful. Even the neighbors liked it. Anybody else get a look?
Posted by: Frank Roylance | January 8, 2005 8:57 PM
I was counting on those clear skies this weekend to see the comet. It clouded up saturday @ 9:45pm and stayed that way for sunday.
Looks like it will stay cloudy
Posted by: starmanjer | January 10, 2005 11:10 AM