Surprise Comet Streaks Into Solar System

National Geographic Society. All rights reserved ^

[kayak]

FYI

[Right Wing Professor]

SW Lancaster County, 25 miles from Lincoln. The skies are plenty dark here, except for the orange glow on the northern horizon. I can see 6th magnitude stars and the andromeda galaxy without difficulty with the naked eye.

[ChemistCat]

I'm wondering too. My viewing will be limited to online, as my retinas don't allow me to see much through 'scopes anymore. So I'm hoping someone will be able to post some pictures to this thread by and by.

[LibWhacker]

Wow, thanks for this url, too! :-) Bookmarked it.
Helios 150mm (6"!!!) binocs, magnification up to 200x, $7295. Much less expensive than the Fujinon 25x150 binocs ($16,500). Of course, if one of the world's best comet hunters uses 20 x 120 binocs, we can be sure it's for a darned good reason -- like maximizing the field of view given the magnification. In any event, that new $600 10" dob from Orion is looking better to me all the time! With my old eyes, the more light the better.

[LibWhacker]

Lucky! I can't even see Andromeda with my 11x80 binoculars I paid a relative fortune for ages ago. We're totally washed out here in Sacramento County.

[Right Wing Professor]

We're totally washed out here in Sacramento County.

On the other hand, it isn't 15 F at 6 a.m. when you shuffle out in your bathrobe and slippers to look for comets. Took me two hours and about a gallon of coffee to warm up.

[Right Wing Professor]

You ought to look into something with a CCD and LCD screen. My wife (bless her heart) gave me a Nikon Coolpix 4500 for Christmas. I simply set it on the picnic table pointing it at the sky, set the exposure for 8 seconds and f3.0, and got a picture of Orion with stars down to mag. 6, right on my laptop (OK, I played a little with the image to boost detection of faint stars). I've been playing with a spotting scope, and can get virtually instant pictures of the Galilean satellites. It's staggering how good even comparatively cheap digital cameras are these days.

[steveo]

nice rack

[LibWhacker]

It's staggering how good even comparatively cheap digital cameras are these days.

Indeed it is. I saw a picture the other day that was taken with a digital camera, and I couldn't believe how good it was. Not too many years ago, they were overpriced and hardly worth considering.

[MHGinTN]

Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D. He's the geophysicist from Boston University who dated the weathering of the Sphinx to 10,000 years ago. Uh, dated to at least 10,000 years ago. The last time copious amounts of rain water fell on the giza palteau would have been approaching the end of the last ice age, and thus further back than the end. The position of constellation Leo on the pre-dawn horizon in front of/the direction of gaze for the sphinx (because of precession) is one of the more telling clues presented by John A. West, Schoch, and Bauval. I'm betting the sphinx was originally carved more than 10,000 years ago, then recarved by the Pharoah who's face/head appears on it now. West feels that the original head would have been a lion.

[PoorMuttly]

Well, it happened again, and I know I promised. I just can't get used to these "socially responsible" trigger locks. I was hoping nobody's notice, but you guys don't miss much...except for...oops...forget I said that.

Where's "DELETE"...oh..here it is

[blam]

"West feels that the original head would have been a lion."

Yup. I saw all this on a one hour documentary.

[lneisone]

I have been collecting comets as well. Your post about the 70's reminds me of Kahoutek (sp) which i saw from Negril Jamaica. I also saw Halleys from Machu Pichu.

I use my homemade 8" reflector for some of the lessor comets, but binoculrs are usually the best.

[LibWhacker]

. . . 7 or 10 power binoculars. Plenty of power and light-gathering ability; perfect for comet finding.

Are you sure, RW? I can't remember the last time I heard of someone discovering a comet with 7 power binocs. A lot more people are doing it, nowadays. So by the time you could pick it up with smaller binoculars like those, chances are someone else with better optics would've already found it.

[RightWhale]

How about this version?

Each lens of the 20X120 binoculars is almost 5 inches in diameter for good light-gathering. 20 power also means the field of view is somewhat limited compared to 7X50 binoculars, but still greater than most telescopes. Compared to ordinary 7 or 10 power binoculars [7X50 or 10X50,] the 20X120 binoculars have plenty of power and light-gathering ability; perfect for comet finding.

[LibWhacker]

Oh, lol, sorry. I misread it. BTW, go to google and search on 'comet hunting binoculars.' There is a whole bunch of stuff there on what the "pros" use (many do seem to use 25 x 150 binoculars to give them a leg up on their competition), when, where and how they go about hunting for comets, etc. One Japanese guy said he expects to make a discovery about once every ten years. A nice leisurely hobby.

[Axenolith]

That book was GREAT!

[plsvn]

His larger observatory, of course, cost a reasonably substantial amount.

Dan,
Leslie's larger observatory (which now no longer stands having long decayed from neglect) was donated to him from Miami University of Ohio when one of his sons was attending there. The instrument was a fine 12" Clark refractor. When Leslie died in 1980, the story goes, one of his sons removed the 12" objective lens, and that's the last anyone's heard of it. If this is incorrect, I'm sure a certain lurker here will correct me!

[Joe Hadenuf]

Way cool.....