Events happen in the sky and we sometime term them rare or extraordinary. On 8th Feb 2013, there was one such rare event; a Mars - Mercury conjunction. The Mercury is usually elusive for,it stays very close to the Sun. But at times it drifts apart a bit owing to ts orbital elongation (not much as compared to other elliptical orbits) and that is perhaps the time to catch it. You have to be accurate all the time to spot it. It was about half an hour after the sunset on the 8th that I spotted the conjunction. There was a twinkle as both the planets were reflecting from the same spot. Since the Sun's glow hadn't died down till then any effort with my camera might have been futile.
2013 promises to be a year of comets. The PanSTARR, already shining in the southern hemisphere is being touted to present a spectacular view in the month of March (07 - 21) in the northern hemisphere. Then this ISON is scheduled to visit us from Nov 2013 to Dec 2014 (best till March 2014). At its peak it is assumed to better the luminosity of the Moon by a whopping 15 times. However, predictions regarding brightness of comets can go for a toss where a negative magnitude can turn into double digit positive one in a matter of months.
It was way back in 1996 and 1997 that we watched comets Hyakutake and comet Hale-Bopp. I could then get both of them on film / slide with least effort. Here's how they appeared in the frame of my camera.
Hale-Bopp
Hyakutake
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