November 30th – Two days after perihelion

22.45: All but gone…

Here’s the very latest pic of ISON…

She’s almost gone, hasn’t she? That’s not a comet, I don’t think. That’s a cloud of dust; ISON’s Sun-blasted corpse, wafting away from the Sun.

Damnit. 😦

I guess we shouldn’t give up hope altogether. ISON might surprise us… again… right?

Hmmmmmm.

I think it’s pretty clear now that we’re not in for a bright naked eye comet in our skies in December. At this rate we probably won’t even be able to see what’s left of ISON without a telescope. It might even be the case that taking a long exposure photograph through a telescope will be the only way to see ISON ever again. I hope not, but I have a feeling that’s the way it’s going to be.

I hope the Sun is feeling pleased with itself for killing our poor little comet. Actually, I know it is, because the latest SOHO images actually show it grinning…

But remember, even if ISON has gone, there is ANOTHER comet in the sky RIGHT NOW, that you don’t need to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to see, and can see through just a pair of binoculars – maybe even with your naked eye if you’re looking for it from a dark sky site with little or no light pollution. If you want to track it down – and seriously, I urge you all to try, so you can say you have seen a comet, even if it’s NOT ISON – then just go to this blog’s dedicated “Comet LOVEJOY” page by clicking on the link on the menu at the top of the page. There are finder charts waiting for you there! Go! Now!

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12.00: I think we’re losing her…

Oh no… it’s not looking good for ISON, or whatever’s left of ISON.

This was the view from the SOHO observatory at just after midnight last night…

Still looking fairly bright there, decent tails coming off a reasonably bright central condensation. But by 08.00 the view and the outlook for ISON had both changed…

As you can see, the comet looks a lot fainter there, more diffuse too. Suddenly it looks a lot less like a solid body, coming back to life, than a cloud of debris starting to spread apart. I suppose it might start to brighten again, but it’s the way the central area looks both bigger *and* fainter that concerns me…

All we can do now is wait and see what the experts say. And obviously keep crossing our fingers that ISON is just playing up again and is going to settle down and start brightening again…

Some of us went out looking for ISON this morning, but even before we got to our observing site we were pretty certain, based on the latest info that ISON was dimming, that we wouldn’t see it. And of course we didn’t. Apart from the fact that there was a bank of low cloud right above the point on the horizon where ISON was due to rise, the sky was just too bright; once we lost sight of Mercury and Saturn low in the east, both considerably brighter than ISON was at that time, we knew we weren’t going to see the comet.

We did see A comet tho! Comet Lovejoy is still shining very prettily close to the stars of the Big Dipper. Here are some of the pics I took this morning….

Lovejoy is in the lower right corner. Easier to see if I crop that a bit…

And zooming in a bit more…

Quite pleased with those, and Lovejoy looked really pretty in binoculars too.

We also enjoyed a lovely view of the very old crescent Moon with Mercury and Saturn shining close to it and close together. I’ve marked the planets’ positions on the following photo. Saturn is higher in the sky and closer to the Moon than Mercury… (click to enlarge)

On this next image, just showing the two planets, arrowed, Saturn is higher than Mercury…

So it was still worth going, even though we didn’t see ISON.

Will we now Will anything appear in the sky before dawn in a few days time? I don’t know.No-one does. But I must confess I really don’t like the look of the comet now, and I’m less confident than I was. But hey, not giving up yet!

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