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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
 Posted: 23-03-2002 09:32 Post subject: Comet Ikeya-Zhang |
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(from Griffith Observatory Sky Information)
Comet Ikeya-Zhang has surpassed 4th magnitude and is easily visible in binoculars in the evening sky from about 7 to 7:45 p.m. Link here (This page contains other useful links.)
A story about one of the discoverers is here |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 23-03-2002 10:14 Post subject: |
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Cheers, Rynner.
I've been trying to see it for the last few nights, but there are too many clouds between me and it. 
Maybe tonight's the night...
(I managed to post without mentioning Ikea. D'oh! Sorry.  )
Last edited by Guest on 23-03-2002 10:24; edited 1 time in total |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-03-2002 21:41 Post subject: I see'd it! |
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Suddenly realising that it was a clear evening, I went for a wander round town with my bins, trying to find a gap in the buildings without a sodium street light spoiling the view. Eventually found a spot, and located the comet within minutes, even though the light had not yet faded from the western sky. (c. 1945 GMT)
If you have never seen a comet before, it is quite distinctive. Focus your bins (7x50 are fine) on any faint star first, then sweep the WNW area of the sky, not too high. The comet appears as an extended fuzzy patch, with the faint streak of its tail extending nearly vertically upwards.
I can't give its position in terms of nearby stars because its in a rather boring patch of sky, and by the time the available nearby stars are visible the comet will have nearly set. There's a full moon tonight on the opposite side of the sky, but that will become even less of a problem as it wanes over the next few days.
If you're out early enough you may see Venus as a bright star low in the Western sky. The comet is a little higher and further north (right), though you may not see the comet before sets. More general info on movements and positions on the links above. (In April the comet will become a morning object.)
I tried a few other viewing places before going home without success. But I had my key out at the front door when I wondered if I could see the comet from just over the road - and I could! This is handy, because I'll be able to check its movement against nearby faint stars from day to day quite easily,even though the view is not ideal.
Last edited by rynner on 27-03-2002 21:58; edited 1 time in total |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 27-03-2002 22:22 Post subject: |
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| Cursed wrote: |
Cheers, Rynner.
I've been trying to see it for the last few nights, but there are too many clouds between me and it.
Maybe tonight's the night...
(I managed to post without mentioning Ikea. D'oh! Sorry. ) |
You're lucky! I've got an airport in the way! |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-03-2002 22:57 Post subject: |
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Well, it's not ideal here, with the rise of the ground and the dreaded street lamps!
More info and star map here. (Click the link to Ikeya-Zhang.) |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-03-2002 23:05 Post subject: |
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Saw it again tonight - it's moved about half the field of view of my &x50s towards the north (which delays its setting time). Best UK viewing time about 8pm and after.
Incidentally saw two planes/satellites cross the field of view while I was watching!
If it's clear tomorrow I may go somewhere away from street lamps, and with a better view to the WNW, to see if it is visible to the naked eye. |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 28-03-2002 23:53 Post subject: |
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| Thanks, Rynner. I've just been out up in the Trough of Bowland to escape the sodium lights to have a good look at the beautiful full moon, then came back and read your post, too late to look for the comet! But I'll look out for it tomorrow night, hopefully. |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 29-03-2002 00:21 Post subject: |
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For a pic of the comet taken in Cornwall tonight, look here.
I'm especially fascinated by this pic because it seems to capture part of the track of one of the aircraft/satellites I saw myself at the same time (the straight line at the top of the main picture).
Well done Bob Barrett! |
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brianellwood MAD HATTER
Mad Hatter Joined: 10 Nov 2001 Total posts: 823 Location: kernow,u.k. Gender: Male |
| Posted: 29-03-2002 00:37 Post subject: |
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| really pissed off!!! seriously i have been looking out to sea for last week or so, and we have an uninterupted view from my window out across the atlantic....often fog, every clear nite we have clouds or fog out to sea several degrees of elevation up... so no comet... ah well we'll keep looking! if u know st just u'll know what i mean,rynner! |
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| garrick92 Invisible Flaneur Joined: 29 Oct 2001 Total posts: 700 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 19-04-2002 22:00 Post subject: The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes ... |
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Dunno about you lot, but I can't help remarking on the fact that the Hale-Bopp comet arrived out of nowhere just before Princess Diana got killed, and this one arrived just before the Queen Mother died ...
... yes, I know: that's silly (there are loads of comets all the time, people are always dying, etc, etc). But I find it rather aesthetically pleasing ... |
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| marionXXX Un-Gnoing Joined: 03 Nov 2001 Total posts: 2922 Location: Keighley, W Yorks Age: 48 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 19-04-2002 22:59 Post subject: |
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| I havn't seen the comet yet but I havn't been bothering with binoculars so that must be why . Went out this evening to see the planets but the sky was a bit cloudy , only the very brightest stars were visible so I couldn't tell which were the planets anyway - was supposed to be near Orion but no Orion |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-04-2002 08:16 Post subject: |
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Orion is not a very good guide actually, despite what the BBC says. By the time it is dark enough to identify Orion, Mercury will have set!
The beeb also made a boob on a recent news, with a graphic showing the planets in their orbits all lined up. This is not the case - there is a fairly wide spread of angles in the orbital positions. The only alignment is from our point of view. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter are on the far side of the sun (Earth is moving away from them), while Mercury and Venus are getting closer to Earth. |
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| ttaarraass Joined: 27 Oct 2002 Total posts: 1635 Location: Cambridge Gender: Male |
| Posted: 08-12-2003 01:25 Post subject: Killing Comets |
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Watching The Sky at Night and they are talking about Nasa sending a rocket up to fire a big piece of metal at comet Tempel-1 in order to smash it up a bit to find out what's inside. Patrick Moore suggested it could damage the comet quite severely.
Is it really our place to blow up comets, and could this have any repercussions? (The only one I could think of was beings on other planets going, 'Hmm, I wonder why that comet isn't coming anymore...') |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 08-12-2003 18:48 Post subject: |
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| I don’t see why not. If it furthers our understanding of the make up of comets then I can only see that we could benefit from it. A comet collision with earth is a possibility and if we have a better understanding of the make up of them then we have a much better chance of diverting or destroying a potentially destructive earth colliding comet. The only potential repercussion I can seriously consider is that large fragments might be blasted into a trajectory that could strike another planet. Namely ours. |
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| Mighty_Emperor Divine Wind
Joined: 18 Aug 2002 Total posts: 19943 Location: Mongo Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 11-01-2004 20:17 Post subject: Comets eveywhere |
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| Quote: | Release No.: 04-01
For Release: 9:20 a.m. EST, Monday, January 5, 2004
Note to Editors: An image to accompany this release is online at: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0401image.html
Suns Of All Ages Possess Comets, Maybe Planets
Atlanta, GA- In early 2003, Comet Kudo-Fujikawa (C/2002 X5) zipped past the Sun at a distance half that of Mercury's orbit. Astronomers Matthew Povich and John Raymond (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues studied Kudo-Fujikawa during its close passage. Today at the 203rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, they announced that they observed the comet puffing out huge amounts of carbon, one of the key elements for life. The comet also emitted large amounts of water vapor as the Sun's heat baked its outer surface.
When combined with previous observations suggesting the presence of evaporating comets near young stars like Beta Pictoris and old stars like CW Leonis, these data show that stars of all ages vaporize comets that swing too close. Those observations also show that planetary systems like our own, complete with a collection of comets, likely are common throughout space.
"Now we can draw parallels between a comet close to home and cometary activity surrounding the star Beta Pictoris, which just might have newborn planets orbiting it. If comets are not unique to our Sun, then might not the same be true for Earth-like planets?" says Povich.
SOHO Sees Carbon
The team's observations, reported in the December 12, 2003, issue of the journal Science, were made with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) instrument on board NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.
UVCS can only study a small slice of the sky at one time. By holding the spectrograph slit steady and allowing the comet to drift past, the team was able to assemble the slices into a full, two-dimensional picture of the comet.
The UVCS data revealed a dramatic tail of carbon ions streaming away from the comet, generated by evaporating dust. The instrument also captured a spectacular 'disconnection event,' in which a piece of the ion tail broke off and drifted away from the comet. Such events are relatively common, occurring when the comet passes through a region of space where the Sun's magnetic field switches direction.
Cometary Building Blocks
More remarkable than the morphology of the carbon ion tail was its size. A single snapshot of Kudo-Fujikawa on one day showed that its ion tail contained at least 200 million pounds of doubly ionized carbon. The tail likely held more than 1.5 billion pounds of carbon in all forms.
"That's a massive amount of carbon, weighing as much as five supertankers," says Raymond.
Povich adds, "Now, consider that astronomers see evidence for comets like this around newly formed stars like Beta Pictoris. If such stars have comets, then perhaps they have planets, too. And if extrasolar comets are similar to comets in our solar system, then the building blocks for life may be quite common."
Understanding Our Origins
In 2001, researcher Gary Melnick (CfA) and colleagues found evidence for comets in a very different system surrounding the aging red giant star CW Leonis. The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) detected huge clouds of water vapor released by a Kuiper Belt-like swarm of comets which are evaporating under the giant's relentless heat.
"Taken together, the observations of comets around young stars like Beta Pictoris, middle-aged stars like our Sun, and old stars like CW Leonis strengthen the connection between our solar system and extrasolar planetary systems. By studying our own neighborhood, we hope to learn not only about our origins, but about what we might find out there orbiting other stars," says Raymond.
Other co-authors on the Science paper reporting these findings are Geraint Jones (JPL), Michael Uzzo and Yuan-Kuen Ko (CfA), Paul Feldman (Johns Hopkins), Peter Smith and Brian Marsden (CfA), and Thomas Woods (University of Colorado).
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.
For more information, contact:
David Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7462 Fax: 617-495-7468
daguilar@cfa.harvard.edu
Christine Lafon
Public Affairs Specialist
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7463, Fax: 617-495-7016
clafon@cfa.harvard.edu |
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0401.html
It might have some interesting implcations for life if there are large amounts of carbon and water being released everywhere.
Emps |
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