Surprise Comet Streaks Into Solar System

National Geographic Society. All rights reserved ^

[Centurion2000]

Did you ever try to buy a used book over the Internet? I tried once, and it took 2 months to finally find out they had cancelled the order. Prior sale. If you want the book, as far as I am concerned, buy it and don't waste too much effort trying to find a bargain.

Try abebooks.com : have done business with them for about 2 years and never had a problem.

[LibWhacker]

Oh, you LUCKY DOG! :-) I've heard of Peltier before and have browsed through his "Starlight Nights."

With these telescopes he independently discovered twelve comets and six novae and made over 130,000 variable star observations.

Wow, that's a very, very serious amateur! 130,000 variable star observations translates to around ten a night for 40 years. I wonder how many potentially serious amateurs today are frittering away their nights on the internet instead of observing? You'd think Al Gore would be ashamed to show his face in public. ;-)

Back in the 80's I read a story about Japan's top amateur comet hunter. IIRC, the guy actually lived in Tokyo! I can't imagine doing any serious astronomy with that much light pollution around me. But he had spent a small fortune on his observatory and there was no way you could argue with his accomplishments in amateur astronomy.

He also had an amazing pair of binoculars that he had spent many, many thousands of dollars on, and that he used to scan the sky every night. I can't remember exactly how much he paid for them, but it blew me away when I read about them. I didn't know such things existed . . . But they definitely put my 11x80s to shame. Anyway, if he found anything of interest, he'd go straight to the telescope to check it out. If not, he'd fall back on his regular systematic searching, shooting pictures all night.

[A CA Guy]

These surprises are another reminder of our fragile mortality. One good hit and God gets to start all over again.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Interesting story on Peltier.

Here's an 8'diameter homemade obsveratory. He used red lights outside as it's doesn't affect your night vision.....This is similar to what I am currently building......

[LibWhacker]

FYI, just searched Google for "Tetuo Kudo," the Japanese amateur mentioned in this article and he uses 20 x 120 binoculars. Amazing to me that binoculars would play any role at all in modern astronomy, amateur or no.

[LibWhacker]

Joe, are you worried a dome might attract thieves? If I put up something like that around here, I'm afraid the whole thing, building and all, would be gone the next day. Of course, if it were made out of nice heavy-gauge steel, it would be perfect.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Are you at Big Bear or Wrightwood?

[Joe Hadenuf]

No need to worry about thieves. I have a 140 pound, blackfaced German Shepard and an a lunatic Akita. No one ever comes close unless invited. Not only that, mine will be built very secure, with cheap, off the shelf motion detectors etc. Not only that, this kind of equipment isn't easily fenced or moved without attracting attention. Plus it's insured....Hehehhe.

[Joe Hadenuf]

FYI, just searched Google for "Tetuo Kudo," the Japanese amateur mentioned in this article and he uses 20 x 120 binoculars. Amazing to me that binoculars would play any role at all in modern astronomy, amateur or no.

They use binoculars due to their extreme wide field of view. For that specific application, hunting asteroids and comets, they are hard to beat. They can cover a lot more sky, much faster than astronomical telescopes that have much smaller field of views.

[Redcloak]

From Sky & Telescope...

[RightWhale]

20 x 120 binoculars

These are kind of extreme for binoculars. Each lens is almost 5 inches in diameter. 20 power also means the field of view is somewhat limited compared to ordinary 7 or 10 power binoculars. Plenty of power and light-gathering ability; perfect for comet finding.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Check these babies out....

[6ppc]

Hammer Time!

[Joe Hadenuf]

Nice binocs Huh. I wished I had a pair of those. Unfortunately, I am not the owner of those.

I do however, have one of these. But the binocs would be much better for looking for comets.

[RightWhale]

If you could lengthen the optical path outside the body of the scope enough to bring the eyepiece to the side of the body with prisms or flat mirrors, and then set up a pair of these so you could look through both like binoculars, you would have it. A different figure on the secondary would do it. Lengthening the optical path will reduce the clear aperture, so it is a tradeoff. But stereo vision adds enough to more than compensate. Make a periscope to check if the mirrors rotate the image, but I don't think they do when paired.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Well, I can utilize a focal reducer . This accessory makes it possible to have a dual focal ratio instrument, without sacrificing image quality. It will reduce this f10. scope to an f6.3 gaining wider field a view and it also reduces exposure time when conducting film photography.

And nothing wrong with Dobs. As a matter of fact, some of the new ones have huge primary mirrors, like 16" and up. They are a little pricy but they pack a whole lot of light gathering ability. I have seen some homemade Dobs that are 21" diameter.

The only draw back with Dobs is the lack the tracking ablility for CCD imaging or astro photography.

[Right Wing Professor]

Out of curiosity, has anyone actually seen this comet? I did a pretty systematic search arount the S&T predicted position on the morning of 12/31 and saw nothing with naked eye, binocs or a spotting scope. The sky was clear and very dark (I live way out in the country)