Posted by
michael
on from the head-in-the-stars dept.
TrinSF writes "SFGate.com, run by the San Francisco Chronicle, has a story on Comet Ikeya-Zhang. It's on a 350 year cycle, and should be visible to the naked eye in some places over the next few weeks. Here's a gallery of pictures, too."
Re:Great Book on Cometography at amazon
by
User+956
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· Score: 1, Informative
I'm an amateur astronomer, and there's a really great book on Cometography on Amazon. It's called "Cometography: A Catalog of Comets", by Brian G. Marsden.
It may be backordered, but AFAIK the San Francisco Library has a copy.
-- The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Re:hopes for us on the right coast (pun intended)
by
suss
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· Score: 3, Informative
Well, those of us on the East coast missed out on the Leonids, is there any hopes of us seeing this?
It's a comet, not a meteor shower. I can't see it with the naked eye here (52 degrees north), but it's visible with binoculars. Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp were much easier to find...
NASA approves 2004 mission to smash comet
by
User+956
·
· Score: 1, Informative
I swear I'm not making this up. This is an article from yesterday's news page on canoe.ca.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA approved a mission Thursday designed to send a projectile hurtling into a comet in an effort to bare the dirty space snowball's nucleus for study.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials gave the Deep Impact mission team the nod to begin full-scale development of the spacecraft for a January 2004 launch.
The $240-million mission will take 18 months to arrive in the neighbourhood of Comet Tempel 1. Once at the comet, the main spacecraft will deploy a smaller, 350-kilogram impactor to smash into the body July 4, 2005.
The main spacecraft will remain at a safe distance to measure and image the outflow of gases from the blast hole, the size of a football field and seven storeys deep. The impact should cause the comet to brighten enough to be visible from Earth.
The artificial cratering of the comet won't destroy it but will kick up enough material to allow scientists to learn more about its composition. Preserved by the deep freeze of space, comets are thought to contain pristine examples of the primitive material that formed the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Comet Tempel 1 was discovered in 1867. It orbits the sun once every 5.5 years.
-- The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Re:"Clenched fist"
by
ryants
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· Score: 3, Informative
A clenched fist at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of sky. The sun moves about 10 degrees / hour, so seeing how many "fists" from the sun to the horizon gives a good approximation the number of hours of daylight left.
Note: this is all from hazy memory, so I may be wrong.
--
Ryan T. Sammartino "Ancora imparo"
Re:Tracking interplanetary objects?
by
pfalstad
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· Score: 4, Informative
Home Planet does a good job, and has an orrery display as well as a sky view.
you'll also want the orbital elements, which can be put into the cometnew.csv file so you know where all the latest comets are (including Ikeya-Zhang)
Re:Tracking interplanetary objects?
by
ender81b
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· Score: 3, Informative
If you make a open-source program, email it to me. I'd love to try it out. bill_dinger@N.O.S.P.A.M.yahoo.com
Re:Tracking interplanetary objects?
by
Shooter6947
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· Score: 3, Informative
Use Xephem -- you download and compile the source 'cuz it was developed for Unix systems, hence its Linux & FreeBSD friendly. Its also a FreeBSDport, which makes it trivial for you to install should you be so fortunate as to be running that OS.
More Pics of Ikeya-Zhang
by
slinted
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· Score: 2, Informative
APOD ran a great picture of Ikeya-Zhang last monday, showing how much it has flaired up since coming into the stronger solar wind. Their links give more info about the comet for those interested in such things.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a viewers guide to the comet that might come in handy at Space.com
--Metrollica
I'm an amateur astronomer, and there's a really great book on Cometography on Amazon. It's called "Cometography: A Catalog of Comets", by Brian G. Marsden.
It may be backordered, but AFAIK the San Francisco Library has a copy.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Well, those of us on the East coast missed out on the Leonids, is there any hopes of us seeing this?
It's a comet, not a meteor shower. I can't see it with the naked eye here (52 degrees north), but it's visible with binoculars. Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp were much easier to find...
I swear I'm not making this up. This is an article from yesterday's news page on canoe.ca.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NASA approved a mission Thursday designed to send a projectile hurtling into a comet in an effort to bare the dirty space snowball's nucleus for study.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials gave the Deep Impact mission team the nod to begin full-scale development of the spacecraft for a January 2004 launch.
The $240-million mission will take 18 months to arrive in the neighbourhood of Comet Tempel 1. Once at the comet, the main spacecraft will deploy a smaller, 350-kilogram impactor to smash into the body July 4, 2005.
The main spacecraft will remain at a safe distance to measure and image the outflow of gases from the blast hole, the size of a football field and seven storeys deep. The impact should cause the comet to brighten enough to be visible from Earth.
The artificial cratering of the comet won't destroy it but will kick up enough material to allow scientists to learn more about its composition. Preserved by the deep freeze of space, comets are thought to contain pristine examples of the primitive material that formed the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Comet Tempel 1 was discovered in 1867. It orbits the sun once every 5.5 years.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Note: this is all from hazy memory, so I may be wrong.
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
Home Planet does a good job, and has an orrery display as well as a sky view. you'll also want the orbital elements, which can be put into the cometnew.csv file so you know where all the latest comets are (including Ikeya-Zhang)
Links to seti@home area for sky maps.
Because any discussion of orbital mechanics will run into the pages I suggest you visit these sites:
if that doesn't help try these
If you make a open-source program, email it to me. I'd love to try it out. bill_dinger@N.O.S.P.A.M.yahoo.com
Use Xephem -- you download and compile the source 'cuz it was developed for Unix systems, hence its Linux & FreeBSD friendly. Its also a FreeBSD port, which makes it trivial for you to install should you be so fortunate as to be running that OS.
APOD ran a great picture of Ikeya-Zhang last monday, showing how much it has flaired up since coming into the stronger solar wind. Their links give more info about the comet for those interested in such things.