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Observing

Overview

The CIOC's primary task is to encourage and facilitate observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). To that end we currently have the following resources available on the CIOC website:

  • Observation Plans: This page contains a list of planned observations from professional ground- and space-based assets in calendar and table forms. Note that the plans are only those which we have been made aware. There are undoubtedly many more plans to observe C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) than we have listed here, but we rely on those observers to inform us of their plans, should they choose to do so. It is also very important to note that many of the observations listed there are typically proposed observations. Ground-based astronomy is highly dependent on the weather, and both ground- and space-based facilities occasionally encounter technical or programmatic problems that prohibit the observations from taking place.
  • Observation Information Form: Professionals, send us your observing plans via our easy to use observation form.
  • Observation Logs: These are brief reports sent to us by professional astronomers of their observing runs. Once again this page requires voluntary input, and we provide instructions on the page that describes how to send us that input.
  • Publications: When papers or telegrams are published, we list them on this page for your convenience.

Observability Plots

Regrettably, comet Siding Spring is going to prove elusive for almost all Northern Hemisphere observers, with the exception of those that are within ~10-degrees north of the equator. For Southern Hemisphere observers, conditions are a little better but depend very much on time of day and geographic location. To help those observers, the CIOC's Ron Vervack has compiled some excellent visibility charts for different latitude/longitude grids that show the best times for viewing the comet along with its predicted visual magnitude at that time. We have separated the figures out into three geographical areas: