(no subject)

[andrew_jorgensen]

Comets are coming!!

Hyakatuke and Hale-Bopp, back in the mid-nineties, provided me with some of my favorite sky viewing, so I'm guardedly hopeful about these two. Astronomy Magazine predicted that one might get up to 0.6 magnitude and the other 1.1, so I'm a little disappointed to see that Sky & Telescope suggests that LINEAR will max out at 2 and NEAT at 2.5. Well, I'm good on a clear but light-polluted Cleveland night to about magnitude 4.0, so here's hoping!

Comments

When is all this happening?

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Re: When is all this happening?

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

May.

I'm a little jaded on comets

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I can remember as a kid wanting so badly to see Halley's comet. When it came in 1986, if I hadn't been deep enough into astronomy to know exactly what to look for, I wouldn't have seen it at all. I can't remember the name of it now, but there was one comet back in the eighties that was such a viewing bust, it's name was synonymous with big hype resulting in a big let-down for several years. The comets of the 1990s were a lot more interesting, but still not what I'd been led to expect as a child.

Re: I'm a little jaded on comets

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

Well, aren't you the astronomical wet blanket!

Actually, having never found Halley's Comet in 1986, I'm well-prepared for disappointment. It was pretty sobering to find that Sky & Telescope's predictions weren't as optimistic as Astronomy's. However, hope does spring eternal.

Hyakatuke was a smudge, but by no means a dim smudge, and it was a 4-degree smudge that was trackable for a couple of months. I must admit that it fascinated me. Hale-Bopp, though smaller, was brighter and admitted a little more detail (plus, there were aliens hiding behind it). On my hierarchy of naked-eye astronomy events, comets rank below only total solar eclipses, but that's chiefly because of the rarity of comets that reward naked-eye astronomy.

Though, were Betelguese to go supernova, I might have to reorder my hierarchy.

You're riaght

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't be such an astronomically wet blanket!

I just checked the link you gave, and Kahoutek of the 1970's is the one I was thinking of as such a bust. [past decades all run together after a while. ;o)] I saw it, too. But, it was only about a third the apparent size of Halley's, which was still hard to see. Halley's was visible with the naked eye in my suburb, but you couldn't tell what it was without binoculars.

Since there is an investment in keeping large telescopes useful in Arizona, there are some fairly strict regulations about commercial lights at night in Phoenix. The viewing in town isn't too bad considering.

If Betelgeuse goes supernova any time soon, I'm writing nasty letters to the WB and FOX. It's bad enough my favorite shows get canceled, but if one of my favorite stars gets canceled after having such great viewership over the centuries, I'm gonna be mad! And the same goes for Rigel!

Re: You're riaght

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

There's certainly a difference between an astronomical wet blanket and an astronomically wet blanket, and there's no way you're the latter. I did think it was a little strange that the person on my friends-list who I expected would have the best viewing conditions for the comments would be so prepared for disappointment. On the other hand, if I don't see these things, I can blame the lousy skies in Cleveland; if you don't see them, it's because they're just not worth looking at.

We will see. Well, I hope that we will see.

Hmmm

[atpotch.livejournal.com]

I was just skimming these comments, thinking 'I know nothing about this, when will d'H get to his next joke', when I saw Total Solar Eclipse, and remembered that, entirely by co-incidence, I was at the one in 1999 (?) in Cornwall. It was genuinely rather exciting.

TCH

Re: Hmmm

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

We watched the same eclipse! We were thousands of miles apart, but there must be some connection there. I can't remember if "genuinely rather exciting" is English understatement or English irony, and considering the weather at Land's End that day, it could go either way, but I must say that a total solar eclipse is the most sublime sight I have ever had the fortune to behold. I'm glad that you've taken advantage of the chance.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

You big fat geek ;-)

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

Correctly spelled, that's phat geek.