ISON Rising - Comet is Now In Outburst!

On Wednesday morning, November 13, 2013, I observed Comet ISON with 15×70 binoculars and a 5.5″ Schmidt-Newtonian telescope. Although brighter than it had been, ISON was still difficult to see if you were not looking in exactly the right spot where it was located. 

Well, let me tell you what a difference 24 hours can make.  On Thursday morning, November 14, 2013, I lifted the binoculars and could see an intense green glowing object rising out of the trees even though it was to the extreme right of the binocular field.  I immediately centered it and could tell right away that this was a comet and not a star.  The teal-green color was unmistakeable (it is rare to see color in extended astronomical objects, btw.) Whatever happened, Comet ISON was now 5-fold brighter than the day before and showing intense color.

Comet ISON on Nov 14, 2013.  18×30 sec @ ISO 1600, Canon 200mm F/2.8 lens, modified Canon T3 DSLR.

The news is now official – Comet ISON has entered into an “outburst” phase and has brightened significantly in 24 hours.  It either means the Sun has heated up a pocket of volatiles and released them from inside the comet or the comet nucleus is breaking up and has exposed enormous quantities of frozen ice and gases. 

Whatever the case may be, the next few days will be very telling.  If this is a breakup, it will not last long and the comet could start to fall to pieces and evaporate before our eyes.  If this is just a release of material from inside the comet and the nucleus remains intact, then this could go on until the comet gets to perihelion on November 28th and rounds the Sun and heads back towards our direction.  It could make Comet ISON very bright for the next few weeks or so. (But, see the caveat at the end of the article.)

In addition to observing the comet, I also photographed it with a standard 200mm telephoto lens.  The image above is a stack of 18 frames from the 20-something I took of it.  Note the meteor to the left of the comet, which was from one frame.  In addition to this photo, I assembled an animated GIF image of Comet ISON rising from the trees in my backyard.  Check it out:

Comet ISON Rising Out of the Trees – November 14, 2013.

If you do not get to see ISON just before sunrise on Friday, November 15th, 2013, be prepared to see it with a significant amount of moonlight hindering the view.  Also, ISON is getting lower and lower in the sky by the day and will be deep in the murk on the horizon by the end of next week.  In fact, it will be less than 5 degrees high by the start of strong twilight by November 22, 2013, which means it will rise during astronimical twilight and be barely high enough to observe when the sky gets too bright to see stars.