Comet ISON Comes into View as It Approaches the Sun

Comet ISON has grown more visible, improving the chances for people in Ashburn to be able to see the celestial projectile as it passes Earth and slingshots around the sun – and possibly out of the solar system, according to EarthSky.org.

The website reported that many viewers saw ISON zoom past the star Spica in predawn skies today. See the photos here of Comet ISON near the same star in mid-November.

Comet ISON is a “sungrazing” comet, meaning one side of its elliptical orbit passes very close to the sun. The point at which a comet comes closest to the sun is called the perihelion. Comet ISON’s perihelion is expected on Nov. 28.

While some had hoped for a view of a fragmenting comet – or expressed concerns the comet’s would be too small to see – experts do not believe that has occurred, according to EarthSky.

At perihelion, the comet will be lost in the glare, but if it survives, it will be back in the skies in December, according to EarthSky. A December return could even provide a better time to see the comet.

·       NASA has a great video timeline of Comet ISON.

To see it this week, get outside and look toward the constellation Leo at about 4 a.m.

To see ISON, you'll need a pair of binoculars or a small telescope and you want to be away from Leesburg's brightest lights.

NASA says it will either “sizzle as a spectacular sky show or fizzle as it is torn apart by the sun’s gravity and baked by the sun.”

From NASA: "The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day — Nov. 28, 2013 — skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun’s surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet."

The latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope, taken in mid-October, suggest ISON is still intact as it enters the homestretch of its journey.

The comet may burn bright enough that it will be visible in the daylight.

It is named after a telescope for the International Scientific Optical Network. Two Russians spotted ISON through a 15.7-inch (0.4-meter) reflecting telescope from that organization.