(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

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.