Most anyone can tell you that Comet Panstarrs is going to be in the west near the horizon, setting after the sun and putting on a good visual show. It's difficult to find photos from the USA. . . I heard some were out there on Google +, but I haven't seen them yet.
From this area we've been affected by the bad weather, lack of clear skies and we need very transparent skies and less light pollution to see the comet. Allen Park has the advantage of being close to those of us who are in the downriver area and want a vantage point that shows the horizon. But of course there are clouds and haze. The clouds are from our local weather of course. Here's a photo (actually a set of them merged), that I took from Saturday night, after sunset around 7:02PM. This was before the time change to our clocks. The sun had set and Panstarrs would not be visible. I knew the clouds would block the view so I didn't rush out to see the sunset and I knew the comet wouldn't be visible due to the clouds.
I made an excuse of looking at the location further back in the parking lot on the hill by the strip mall. One of the visitors told me that it was better back there and we'd get a better view of the horizon.
I noticed some lights shining from the distance that were not covered and only shining on the ground. These were on the back of Lowe's across the water retention wildlife pond. A good example of "bad lighting vs. Cutoff lighting in one photo.
As you can see there are clouds as well in the image, covering the sky.
It was a busy Saturday night, and I could smell the steaks frying at the local restaurants in this area. Looking back over the parking lot a lot of dusk and particulate matter was suspended in the air, perhaps fog and dust from all the drivers and perhaps some of the smoke from the local steak eatery. I took a photo and you can see all the haze. This is a good example of a lot of haze and particles in the air.
This kind of stuff will affect the seeing conditions at the horizon, even if the clouds were clear, it would affect the comet viewing from Allen Park or any area that had that much dust and haze in the air. Look at the far end of the parking lot and all the haze/glare from the lights.
WHERE CAN WE SEE THE COMET?
In the next few days you might have to travel to Troy to see the comet. I'm not talking about Troy Michigan, I'm talking about Troy Tennessee. East of Troy there is a state park with a large lake in the northern corner of Tennessee. Good for wild-life and bird watching, there are fifty bald eagles in the area. And a nice low horizon. But it's an 11 hour drive. Everything north of that location toward us could have clouds according to the forecasts and storms. For the next few days even that location will have rain and clouds. I'm talking about perhaps Wednesday or Thursday for that location using a forecast from a couple days ago.
Of course you could head further south maybe in the Memphis Tennessee area to try to get below the clouds for Wednesday night or Thursday night. It's difficult to predict the weather.
A huge storm with rain and snow is covering the midwest. During much of this week.
The comet may get higher in the sky over time, at least to a point in the west and it will climb higher in the early morning sky, but as it gets higher and further away from the sun it will grow dimmer and be less of a naked eye comet and more of a binocular or telescope comet.
I wouldn't expect much in the way of seeing the comet over the next few days.
We will have some time to view the comet especially in the early morning. HJRO observatory cannot see the comet in the west, due to the height of the shutter. We need objects to be 14 degrees up or more to see them at all because of the height of the walls and shutter. So we won't see the comet until later in the month using the C14 and only then before sunrise.
Greg
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