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."
Comet Madness?
by
User+956
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
"In 1910, when it was announced that Halley's Comet would once again pass the earth, hysteria broke out in Europe, based on the belief that the arrival of this comet always heralded castrophe. The war of 66 A.D. that brought about the fall of Jerusalem, the devastation of Rome by the Huns in 373, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (it is Halley's Comet that can be seen in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, announcing the death of Harold), and many other tragic events did in fact coincide with the comet's appearance.
Whether or not these occurrences actually had anything to do with the comet anxiety spread throughout Europe as soon as its impending arrival was announced, and thousands of people fled to the mountains for safety. A group of French scientists published a paper claiming that the earth would be poisoned by fumes from the comet's tail.
Reports of 'comet insanity' and suicide attempts filled the newspapers, and 'anticomet pills' guaranteeing protection from the comet's noxious fumes, where bought up eagerly.
The comet, however, came and went without much incident"
- David Louis
from his book: 2201 Fascinating Facts
Doesn't this remind you of the madness today?
-- The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
How to set up telescope
by
Metrollica
·
· Score: 0, Interesting
My telescope's manual is missing. I'm trying to view the Ikeya-Zhang comet, and I'm not sure if I have the telescope set up right? With the latitude set on Polaris from the previous night, it always swings to the same spot when I try for the Comet. Since I don't have a clock drive, how do I compensate for the time of day?
--
--Metrollica
Tracking interplanetary objects?
by
extrasolar
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Is there any free software that will allow me to track interplanetary objects perhaps with a display? In other words, I would like to know where asteroids, comets, and even planets are at any given time in real space (I'm not much of an amateur astronomer though--so sky coordinates wouldn't be so useful for me). Is there any existing software that would do that?
If not, can someone point me to or explain to me the mathematics behind the orbits of interplanetary objects? If so, I think I would be able to write the software myself. I suppose I would need to know the conventions used for the orbits of existing objects so I could input new objects into the system.
Thanks. If you don't like public forums, you can email me at kholmes@sedona.net.
Re:Right on time
by
xdistak
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Actually, Snopes (http://www.snopes2.com) dispels that rumor in fashion.
Claim: A 1654 Nostradamus prediction said World War III would begin with the fall of "two brothers," a reference to the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
Status: False.
A similar quote is:
"In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos,
while the fortress endures,
the great leader will succumb,
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"
Nostradamus 1654
The quote has been modified and sent in chain letter fashion across the internet, but Nostradamus cannot claim credit for it. A college student made up the quote in 1997, in order to show how prophecies can be applied to almost any given situation. Anyways, the Snopes article is a great read on this exact quote, under 'Rumors of War'. Hell, the exact webpage is http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/predict.htm.
Build Your Own Telescope
by
goingware
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I'm building my own telescope, an 8 inch (wide) reflector. You can build a telescope too, very inexpensively and with modest materials.
It's very interesting and enjoyable. Try it! Maybe you'll discover a comet too someday.
True, to purchase an 8 inch reflector isn't that bad anymore, but with the skill you gain from building a small telescope you would become able to build a much larger telescope affordably; to buy one, say a 20 inch, would be beyond the financial reach of most working people, but you could reasonably build one. Many people do.
The amateur telescope making mailing list will be glad to help you out. Mel Bartels has a lot of
telescope making links.
Nucleus closeup
by
Shooter6947
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I took this image of the comet nucleus from the Steward Observatory1.6m Kuiper Telescope on top of Mt. Bigelow in Arizona on March 4. I took it for a friend of mine who's trying to nail down the comet's rotational period -- difficult to do when you can only observe it for about 1/2 hour each night before it sets. This is a raw image with a log stretch -- the dynamic range in brightness between the nucleus (saturated in the center), the coma (fuzzy part around bright area), and the three faint tails heading off to the left is huge (like a factor of several thousand). The area covered by the image is 5 arcminutes on a side, 1/6 the size of the full moon. The little bright lines are cosmic ray hits on the CCD, and the fat blotches (like the one above the coma) are stars.
Comets are one of the coolest things to observe in the sky because they CHANGE like every night!
Slashdot Mirror
"In 1910, when it was announced that Halley's Comet would once again pass the earth, hysteria broke out in Europe, based on the belief that the arrival of this comet always heralded castrophe. The war of 66 A.D. that brought about the fall of Jerusalem, the devastation of Rome by the Huns in 373, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 (it is Halley's Comet that can be seen in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, announcing the death of Harold), and many other tragic events did in fact coincide with the comet's appearance.
Whether or not these occurrences actually had anything to do with the comet anxiety spread throughout Europe as soon as its impending arrival was announced, and thousands of people fled to the mountains for safety. A group of French scientists published a paper claiming that the earth would be poisoned by fumes from the comet's tail.
Reports of 'comet insanity' and suicide attempts filled the newspapers, and 'anticomet pills' guaranteeing protection from the comet's noxious fumes, where bought up eagerly.
The comet, however, came and went without much incident"
- David Louis
from his book: 2201 Fascinating Facts
Doesn't this remind you of the madness today?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
My telescope's manual is missing. I'm trying to view the Ikeya-Zhang comet, and I'm not sure if I have the telescope set up right? With the latitude set on Polaris from the previous night, it always swings to the same spot when I try for the Comet. Since I don't have a clock drive, how do I compensate for the time of day?
--Metrollica
Is there any free software that will allow me to track interplanetary objects perhaps with a display? In other words, I would like to know where asteroids, comets, and even planets are at any given time in real space (I'm not much of an amateur astronomer though--so sky coordinates wouldn't be so useful for me). Is there any existing software that would do that?
If not, can someone point me to or explain to me the mathematics behind the orbits of interplanetary objects? If so, I think I would be able to write the software myself. I suppose I would need to know the conventions used for the orbits of existing objects so I could input new objects into the system.
Thanks. If you don't like public forums, you can email me at kholmes@sedona.net.
Actually, Snopes (http://www.snopes2.com) dispels that rumor in fashion. Claim: A 1654 Nostradamus prediction said World War III would begin with the fall of "two brothers," a reference to the destroyed World Trade Center towers. Status: False. A similar quote is: "In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb, The third big war will begin when the big city is burning" Nostradamus 1654 The quote has been modified and sent in chain letter fashion across the internet, but Nostradamus cannot claim credit for it. A college student made up the quote in 1997, in order to show how prophecies can be applied to almost any given situation. Anyways, the Snopes article is a great read on this exact quote, under 'Rumors of War'. Hell, the exact webpage is http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/predict.htm.
It's very interesting and enjoyable. Try it! Maybe you'll discover a comet too someday.
True, to purchase an 8 inch reflector isn't that bad anymore, but with the skill you gain from building a small telescope you would become able to build a much larger telescope affordably; to buy one, say a 20 inch, would be beyond the financial reach of most working people, but you could reasonably build one. Many people do.
The amateur telescope making mailing list will be glad to help you out. Mel Bartels has a lot of telescope making links.
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
Comets are one of the coolest things to observe in the sky because they CHANGE like every night!