much ado about comets

I read François's The Sky This Month materials, posted to the RASC Toronto Centre web site. Reviewed his PowerPoint slide and Excel sheet. Too bad he doesn't submit these as PDFs. More people would benefit.

He did not have much for us to do over the next month. And he seemed to be really flogging comets. Ones due in March or later.

I took from the presentation a very optimistic tone. I messaged him for more info on C/2011 L4 PANSTARRS in particular. I asked if it would be visible for us, people in Ontario.

He replied, "PANSTARRS should become visible late in February but the best time will be March 4th and into April. It is better placed for southern observers who will be able to start seeing the comet as of the end of January inbound. We will see it more on the outbound portion of its route after perihelion."

March 4? It will be east of the Sun! So level with it at sunset. And the tail would be parallel to the ground. How could we see that?! It just looked too close to the Sun. Around 15° at perihelion. On March 11. In very bright skies. I've seen star-like Mercury around greatest elongation, around 15° away. Soft fuzzy comet? Fickle comet?

"On the outbound part of the passage, just after evening twilight, the tail will stick straight up in the west, and should be visible in Toronto from a semi-dark site. Outside of the city, the tail and coma should be quite clear from March 4th onwards for the remainder of the month."

I dunno. I think we'll be extremely lucky if we see anything...