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By Marshall Connolly, Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) 9/30/2013 Comet appears to glow green with poisonous gas. Well, are you ready? After a year of breathless anticipation, skywatchers are prepared to receive the potential comet of the century next month as Comet ISON sails by Earth one it's first and last trip around the Sun. Comet ISON has a yellow-green tint in this image. Share on email LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Astronomers have been watching Comet ISON closely as it approaches Mars this week, then continues in the general direction of Earth. When it was detected, now just over a year ago, astronomers originally predicted that its close brush with the Sun might cause it to brighten enough to rival the full moon. That prediction has been downgraded as the comet's brightness develops, but there are a number of other surprises that makes ISON worth paying attention to, including its color. Backyard astronomers still have a couple we...

by  Nancy Atkinson  on  September 25, 2012 An image generated from  Starry Night software  of how Comet ISON may look on November 22, 2013 from the UK. Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Stuart Atkinson, a space and astronomy enthusiast who blogs at  Cumbrian Sky ,  Road to Endeavour , which follows the Opportunity rover, and  The Gale Gazette  which discusses imagery from the Curiosity rover. Unless you’ve been cut off from the internet today you’ll have heard about The Comet. No, not Comet PANSTARRS, which is due to shine in the sky next March, perhaps rivalling the fondly-remembered Comet Hale Bopp from 1996, but another comet.  Comet 2012/S1, or “Comet ISON”  to give it its full name. It’s everywhere you look on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus. Why? Because initial calculations of its orbit show it will pass ridiculously close to the Sun next November, skimming the solar surface at a height of just under t...