The Von Braun Astronomical Society and the US Space and Rocket Center are hosting a public viewing event at the USSRC in front of the Davidson Center for Comet PanSTARRS on the evening of Tuesday, March 12. The comet is expected to be near peak brightness on that date and a crescent Moon will accompany the comet that evening just a couple of degrees to the north. It’s expected that the comet will be visible to the naked eye, but brightness is still rather unknown with predictions ranging between a that of a dim star to as bright as Jupiter (magnitude +3 to -2).
Start the evening off with a special presentation on comets and meteors given by Dr. Bill Cooke from NASA’s Meteroid Environments Office at 5:30 pm in the Digital Theater. Sunset is at 6:52 pm and the comet will set about 8:00 pm. Viewing will be best by naked eye and binoculars. However, it would be good to have a few telescopes, especially short focal length scopes.
If you are interested in supporting this event, please contact Jeff Delmas at: jeff@delmasfamily.net
