oh, what a surprise...

there i was, drifting silently down the river alone in my kayak one beautifully clear friday evening in january, staring at the sliver of moon that was sinking in the darkening sky, when i noticed a bright star right next to it. ok, its venus. nothing new, but so beautifully well poised next to the moon. funny thing was, as i came round a bend in the river a little further on venus had disappeared! weird. never seen that before. but even weirder, as the sky got darker i noticed a smear of light to the left. kinda like a night club searchlight. no night clubs out here though! as it got darker still...wow – it's a comet!

unbelievable. awesome. being (intentionally) out of reach of media and television i had no idea there was even one doing the rounds. but what was really amazing was how big and clear it was – the tail curved far upward into the sky. totally unlike the "is it or isn't it" blurry glimpses of the renowned halley's comet through shaky binoculars. now this is really how i expected a comet to look!

and no-one else was out to see it. they were all inside watching tv...

mre
x

ps. later i found out that the unexplained disappearance of venus was an "occultation" of the planet by the moon. plus a comet in the sky at the same time...what are the odds on that?