Tag Archives: comets

Specola Guestbook: July 21, 1911 – Joel Metcalf

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This entry is part 24 of 29 in the series Specola Guestbook

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory.  A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from July 21, 1911, when Joel Metcalf made a visit. Next to his name, Rev. Joel Hastings Metcalf (1866-1925) wrote “Winchester, Mass.”  He was a Unitarian minister and an avid amateur astronomer who specialized in hunting asteroids and comets. Between 1905 and 1914, he discovered 41 asteroids and several comets. He was a member of the visiting committees of the Harvard Observatory and the Ladd Observatory (Brown U.) The asteroids 726 Joëlla and 792 Metcalfia (both among the 41 he discovered) are named for him, and several of the comets he discovered also bear his name.       … Continue reading →

New Orbit Visualizations for the JPL Small-Body Database Browser

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I frequently refer to the JPL Small-Body Database Browser for information on asteroids and comets. The website has brand new visualization software that beautifully displays the orbits of asteroids and comets, and allows you to zoom and rotate-around easily using the mouse – the same way as in NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System. So what’s the first thing I did when I found out about this? I searched for my wife’s asteroid: 117852 Constance: You can set the date from 1600-2199, select which major solar system bodies you’d like to see, take screen-shots, and view a time-lapse of the body orbiting the Sun. About the only thing the new tool does not have (and I wish it did) is the ability to capture a short animated-GIF when you play-forward a time-lapse. “The primary developer, Kevin Gill, deserves the major credit for this new tool.” – Dr. Alan B. Chamberlin/JPL Kevin: Good Job! I had to stop myself from playing with the new tool several times as … Continue reading →

Comet Lessons – C 17 P / Holmes

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My interest in comets started back in 1986 when Comet 1P/ Halley was visible from my back garden in a small unstable telescope. I showed it to several people and ten years later did the same with comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake in the same small 50 mm telescope on a shaky wooden tripod. April 1997 brought the wonderful Hale Bopp to Irish skies, that was, a truly magnificent naked eye sight. All this time my interest in comets was building but in hindsight for reasons beyond my comprehension I did not record them in sketches only in my memory. Most likely it was bringing up my children that distracted me. Comet Machholz C/2004 Q2 This comet really got me going on comets. I followed it and sketched its path through the sky from December 22nd 2004 until I could no longer see it after the  2nd March 2005. I began observing this grey blob in space with 10X50 Zeiss binoculars … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Ice dreams

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This entry is part 137 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This is a slightly edited version of a column that first ran in The Tablet in August 2014 ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. Launched more than ten years earlier, upon arrival it took up an orbit around the sun that parallels the comet’s path, to keep the comet in its cameras from a distance of only a few tens of kilometers. The next two months saw intense preparation for the final stage of the mission: in mid November, 2014, a lander was sent to the comet’s dark surface with instruments to measure its composition in close up detail. (The original plan was for it to drill about 20 cm into the comet itself, to pierce the dusty crust and reach the icy material beneath. Alas, it landed into a shadowed region and was not able to get enough power to do its job or communicate with the orbiter… its fate is described here, on … Continue reading →

Get off the Sofa – Stellarium a beginners guide to the software with videos and instruction

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Virginia creepers are turning red, evening light drops noticeably, a chilled breeze tosses  leafs around the garden . Thoughts of winter constellations and log fires warm my heart as we lean towards autumn.  Magnificent Orion is slowly making a return  with its extremely detailed nebula, a sketching target of mine.  Once several years ago I saw it in a very dark sky , the detail was outstanding even in my 8 inch dob. I observed what looked like cracks  in the molecular cloud, it was so totally mesmerizing  however my view was  soon eliminated by fog creeping up and over me .  A drawing  to look forward to attempting  as M42 is truly special. We look from our gardens at a place where stars are born . Observing M42 we also look back in time about 1,500 light years.  The future and the past combined , a wonderful sight, a complex drawing. My hopes are for a comet in outburst … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Changelings

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This entry is part 81 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in July 2010 In 1803, a team of French scientists investigated a fall of meteorites near the town of L’Aigle, and concluded that they were indeed samples from outside of Earth. It was a revolution comparable to Copernicus’: the Earth we live on does not exist isolated from all the other planets. Well, at least, not isolated from the asteroids, whose chips may come to us in the form of meteorites or, more often, as harmless showers of meteors. Surely the real planets, orbiting in simple, stable paths far from Earth, don’t touch us. But about sixty years ago, we finally realized that some bits of outer space bigger than dust or rocks manage to hit us, exploding on impact with the energy of nuclear bombs, leaving giant craters. Thirty years ago, we came to admit that one that hit 65 million years ago was big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. (About that … Continue reading →