Daylight comet...?

Don't know how long this will stay current but you may be able to wander outside and see Comet McNaught during the day:
http://www.spaceweather.com/ (it is the 14th Jan posting but US time, so may still be bright here... translate south to north - it should be below the sun prior to your local siderial noon and above the sun after.)
Just remember to be very careful when looking in the direction of the sun... I plan to carefully try to use the veranda roof to block things...

Stil heading to the beach this evening.

Edit: better comet link here from the comet's discoverer based at SSO including southern hemisphere (well, Sydney latitude) viewing info and brightness info.
From the site:

The best geometry occurs on Jan 15, with the comet starting to move away from the sun (now 7 degrees) and almost directly above the position of the sun at sunset. The head will set about 39 mins after the sun, although the azimuth at which it sets will be 5.0 degrees to the left of the sunset point. It is quite reasonable to expect the tail to remain visible up to an hour after sunset, so it may be seen in a dark sky.

On Jan 15 the comet is already 3 degrees from Mercury, up to the left.

By Jan 16, the effect of forward scattering will have dropped back to about zero and the comet will already be heading away from the Sun and Earth; back to the obscurity of the Oort cloud. Although now clearly fading, it will be moving higher into the southern sky away from the sun. At sunset on the 16th, the comet will be about 10 degrees from the sun and just left of directly above the Sun at sunset. It will set 54 mins after the sun, 9 degrees to the left of the sunset point.

From Jan 17 onwards, the comet, although fainter, should be well visible in the darker skies. It then moves into the SW sky at roughly a 45 deg angle up to the left of the sunset point. The angular distance of the comet from sun at the time of sunset from Sydney then increases on a daily basis:

WTF!?!

Astronomy, for example, was dominated (at least in numbers of those doing the actual work) by women in the early modern era, until the male astronomers decided that they could get the respect they wanted by making astronomy more like physics and proclaiming it to be too difficult for women.


(From a discussion on the respect shown women vs men in physics)

You could do the research to check the first part of that statement wrt stats - I suspect that you may get more women involved in the the classification and cataloging eg the Modern History section of the History of Astronomy and the links therein (but that is Wikipedia and not proof/evidence).

But the second bit...? I'd ask the poster, but while I can possibly frame a polite way of asking for references for the first bit, the second half is a bit less clear. I would have though the traditional glass ceiling/discouragement of women in the sciences historically would have been more applicable rather than such a transition for such given reasoning.

Curiously the same poster then implies that the proportions of females in astonomy are larger than those for physics generally because they can name historical female astronomers, "making it tougher to tell young women that they won't be able to hack it."

I'm confused.

And wandered out at noon but couldn't see the comet, even with binoculars - too much ambiant haze/scattered light from the sun, even with the sun as high as possible.

Minor whinge time...

Why is it just when you wish to be in a sea of projects which need to be done in the next few weeks and need to sort, pile and generally freely make a mess and work on things, there is a rental inspection scheduled next Tues.

Why is the only rain for ages forecast for the day with the job interview?
Still deciding what to bring and wear.

Why a "miami" mix for Madonna's version of Don't cry for me Argentina? Ouch.

However it is warm and clear out, there is roast duck in the fridge for dinner and the beach beckons... when Z gets in after missing the bus and being trapped by a bookshop...

(no subject)

Comet confirmed this evening. And even visable with the naked eye, though better with binoculars. Definite tail. This time round were joined by evildrakey, anthraxia, G, Digby and Nutmeg. Played in the nice warm water - Z didn't quite swim out to the comet...
Probably back to beach tomorrow evening, but more for warm/cool water and 40 degree forecast than comet I think.