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."
The best way to find the comet right now after twilight, Jones said, is to look below and to the right of the ruddy planet Mars, which lies above bright Venus, "a clenched fist or two above the western horizon," as Jones put it.
That has to be one of the best ways I've heard to describe how to find something in the sky:)
Re:"Clenched fist"
by
ryants
·
· 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"
Viewer's Guide
by
Metrollica
·
· Score: 4, Informative
There's a viewers guide to the comet that might come in handy at Space.com
--
--Metrollica
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.
Re:Comet Madness?
by
phillymjs
·
· Score: 3, Funny
'anticomet pills' guaranteeing protection from the comet's noxious fumes, were bought up eagerly.
Well, I'm off to eBay to post a few pill bottles full of Skittles with the "S" logos rubbed off!
This'll be as easy as selling Nikes to Heaven's Gaters.:-)
"screwball" is such a tough to define word, really, we should be careful not to accuse any organization of being a cult. I, for one, have told my followers that the comet will only take those of us pure of heart and mind, so most outsiders are safe from our plans for global domination. rest easy, brothers, I'm making applesauce only for us chosen few.
Hale-Bopp was awesome and it had the added advantage of culling the low end of the gene pool.
--
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
Re:hopes for us on the right coast (pun intended)
by
suss
·
· 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...
We are no longer the knights who say "ne",
by
Lord+Ender
·
· Score: 4, Funny
we are the knights who say "icky icky Ikeya-Zhang zoooboing!"
-- A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
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:Tracking interplanetary objects?
by
pfalstad
·
· 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
·
· 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
·
· 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.
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
That has to be one of the best ways I've heard to describe how to find something in the sky
There's a viewers guide to the comet that might come in handy at Space.com
--Metrollica
"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.
"screwball" is such a tough to define word, really, we should be careful not to accuse any organization of being a cult. I, for one, have told my followers that the comet will only take those of us pure of heart and mind, so most outsiders are safe from our plans for global domination. rest easy, brothers, I'm making applesauce only for us chosen few.
spacefem.com
Hale-Bopp was awesome and it had the added advantage of culling the low end of the gene pool.
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
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...
we are the knights who say "icky icky Ikeya-Zhang zoooboing!"
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
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.
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!