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New Comet for the New Year

Posted by michael on from the up-up-and-away dept.

spac3manspiff writes "The news has several stories about a fairly new comet named Comet Machholz discovered by Don Machholz. The comet will be able to be seen in the sky on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2 or Jan. 5 through 8. Along with the comet's appearance: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be able to be seen with a naked eye this month. However, you will need binoculars to see the comet."

11 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. See what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    All I see is clouds and falling snow.

  2. Article got it wrong... by Zathras26 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...the Machholz Comet is named after the guy who really discovered it. Bob Comet.

  3. Re:Where will it be? by Eudial · · Score: 1, Funny

    "I read TFA, but I have no idea where to look for this thing. Does anyone know where to look, say, if you live in upstate New York?"

    In the sky.

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    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
  4. Re:Where will it be? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    OT: is there such a thing as down-state New York?

  5. Quibble by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mass suicide cults don't pop up, they pop off.

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    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  6. Aw man, not again. by Clueless+Moron · · Score: 5, Funny
    I hate these "naked eye" events. I love astronomy, but I'm frankly embarrassed about having to stand out in my yard buck naked just to look at a comet or meteor shower. My neighbours all think I'm a freak.

    Could somebody please explain to me why I have to be naked to view these things? It's especially nasty now in January.

  7. What are the odds? by burtonator · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... fairly new comet named Comet Machholz discovered by Don Machholz.

    Wow! What are the odds that the guy would discover a commet which has his same last name! Amazing.

    And its not like Machholz is a popular last name among commets either!

  8. Bob Comet by dapyx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just a link to pic of Bob Comet

    --
    I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
  9. Re:RTFA by neil.pearce · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not a grammar Nazi either, but am embarrassed by your spelling of "emberassed" and "nazi"

  10. Re:Where will it be? by neil.pearce · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does anyone know where to look?

    Upwards?

  11. Re:Not something since Hale Bopp by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    The most striking thing about that cult was how they made their living. They were paying the rent on a large group home in Rancho Santa Fe and wearing Nikes and all they did was slap together crappy HTML templates for local businesses. Consider that Manson et al were forced to live in low rent districts of southern CA like Death Valley, and got all their food from dumpster diving at supermarkets. If you're in a cult and needing a source of cash but not wanting to call attention to yourself, computer work is great. Everyone expects you to be weird. Sure, Nikes, bald head, whatever.

    It was very strategic for them to commit mass suicide like that. They bailed out of the web-design market at the right time. And I bet the message a lot of people took from the whole episode at the time was wow, if you go into web design, you can make the rent on a hacienda even if you're crazy!

    In all fairness I don't think the cult standard is good for comets. Hale Bopp had the advantage of showing up during a dot com boom.