The Archive of the Amateur Observation Network of the International Halley Watch Volume 2: Comet Halley
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19970037542 2020-06-16T01:47:45+00:00Z JPL Publication 96-3, Vol. 2 The Archive of The Amateur Observation Network of The International Halley Watch Volume 2: Comet Halley Stephen J. Edberg Editor February 9, 1996 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California The research described in this publication was done under the supervision of, and the publication was prepared by, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. ABSTRACT The International Halley Watch (IHW) was organized for the purpose of gathering and archiving the most complete record of the apparition of a comet, Halley's Comet (1982i = 1986 III = iP/Halley), ever compiled. The redirection of the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, subsequently renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), toward Comet Giacobini- Zinner (1984e = 1985 XIII = 21P/Giacobini-Zinner) prompted the initiation of a formal watch on that comet. All the data collected on P/Giacobini-Zinner and P/Halley have been published on CD-ROM in the Comet Halley Archive. This document contains a printed version of the archive data, collected by amateur astronomers, on these two comets. Volume 1 contains the Comet Giacobini-Zinner data archive and Volume 2 contains the Comet Halley archive. Both volumes include information on how to read the data in both archives, as well as a history of both comet watches (including the organizing of the network of astronomers and lessons learned from that experience). iii ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Charles Morris, Daniel W. E. Green, and John E. Bortle were very helpful in supplying advice and information on many aspects of cometary magnitude estimates and the visual appearance. Richard H. Stanton made photoelectric checks on several AAVSO comparison star fields before copies were issued to IHW comet observers. James A. Morgan, Alan Hale, Ruthi Moore, Mike Morrow, John D. Sabia, John Sanford, Chris Spratt, David Seargent, E. Peter Bus, Marek Muciek, Jan Hollan, Antonio Milani, Jose Campos, Klim Churyumov, Graham Keitch, Harold Ridley, Gabor Sule, J_rgen Rendtel, and many other well-known observers served as collection points and forwarded much of the data to the Lead Center. Giulio Varsi, Sandor Trajmar, and B. Watson provided translations of some observers' notes. Murray Geller helped with the proofreading and supplied good advice and considerable encouragement. Richard West provided guidance. Ray L. Newburn, Jr. was helpful and supportive in ways too numerous to list. Pamela K. Stewart supplied very helpful database management routines. Without Mikael Aronsson's programming and patience and Tim Thompson's assistance the presentation of these data would not have been possible. iv Table of Contents Volumes 1 and 2 Prologue ...................................................... 1 I. INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1 Planning and Organization ................................ 3 Registration and Preparation ............................. 4 II. THE ARCHIVE .............................................. 6 Visual Appearance ........................................ 6 Drawings ................................................ 15 Photography ............................................. 17 Astrometry .............................................. 21 Spectroscopy ............................................ 22 Photoelectric Photometry ................................ 24 Meteor Observations ..................................... 24 III. FLEXIBLE IMAGE TRANSPORT SYSTEM (FITS) KEYWORDS IN THE DIGITAL ARCHIVE ......................................... 25 FITS Headers ............................................ 25 IV. OBSERVING SITE LIST ..................................... 29 V. CONCLUSIONS ............................................. 29 VI. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................. 53 v Table of Contents (continued) Volumes i and 2 Tables Table I. Discipline Specialist Team ......................... 3 Table II. The Most Active ICQ Observers ...................... i0 Table III. All Types of Data ................................. 26 Table IV. Visual Appearance .................................. 26 Table V. Drawings ............................................ 27 Table VI. Photography ........................................ 27 Table VII. Spectroscopy ...................................... 28 Table VIII. Observers ........................................ 30 Table IX. Assigned Country Codes ............................. 52 Figures Figure I. (a) The light curve of Comet Giacobini-Zinner, using the brightest total magnitude estimate (if more than one was made) by each observer on every night an observation was made. No aperture corrections have been applied. Breaks in the curve fall around full moon .................................. 8 Figure i. (b) The light curve of Comet Halley using the brightest magnitude estimate (if more than one was made) by observers J. Bortle, R. Bouma, D. W. E. Green, A. Hale, A. Jones, R. Keen, G. Keitch, C. S. Morris, W. Morrison, A. Pearce, D. Seargent, and J. Shanklin on every night an observation was made. Some "nuclear" magnitudes (m2) have been included, falling well below the total magnitude light curves. No aperture corrections have been applied. Breaks in the curve fall around full moon or perihelion ................ 9 Figure I. (c) The light curve of Comet Halley using the brightest magnitude estimate (if more than one was made) by all observers on every night an observation was made. Some "nuclear" magnitudes (m2) have been included, falling well below the total magnitude light curves. No aperture corrections have been applied. Breaks in the curve fall around full moon or perihelion ................................ 9 vi Table of Contents (continued) Volumes 1 and 2 Figures (continued) Figure 2. Terry Lovejoy supplied this collection of drawings of Comet Halley (AON#s 830847, 830850, 830855, 830857, 830860, 830863, and 830868) ......................................... 16 Figure 3. (a) Michael Crist obtained this photograph of Comet Halley's coma and tail root on ii January 1986 (AON# 850760). (b) Stephen Edberg captured Comet Halley's tail extending towards the Milky Way in this photograph on 20 March 1986 (AON# 851187) ............................................... 19 Figure 4. (a) Spectrogram of Comet Halley by W. Tom Buchanan taken on 9 April 1986 (AON# 870136). The continuum of reflected sunlight is punctuated with emissions of CN (on the far left) and various carbon compounds to the right. (b) Spectra of Comet Halley extend on both sides of the zero order image in this photograph by Stephen Edberg taken on 17 March 1986 (AON# 870132) .......................................... 23 Volume 1 Data Set Amateur Observation Network Data on Comet Giacobini-Zinner ...................... DATE: 13 APRIL 1985 Volume 2 Data Set Amateur Observation Network Data on Comet Halley .................................. DATE: 23 JAN 1985 vii THE ARCHIVE OF THE AMATEUR OBSERVATION NETWORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL HALLEY WATCH Prologue The International Halley Watch (IHW) was organized by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the purpose of gathering and archiving the most complete record of the apparition of a comet, Halley's Comet (1982i = 1986 III = IP/Halley), ever compiled. Descriptions of the IHW may be found in Edberg (1985) and in Edberg, Newburn, and Rahe (1988). The potential contribution of amateur astronomers was recognized at the outset (Brandt et al., 1980) and the IHW was set up to include an Amateur Observation Network. Detailed planning and publicity began in 1981 and The International Halley Watch Amateur Observers' Manual for Scientific Comet Studies (Edberg, 1983) was available in time for the IHW's trial run on Comet Crommelin (1983n = 1984 IV = 27P/Crommelin) in 1983-4. The data acquired during the trial run have been published in print (Sekanina and Aronsson, 1985) and by NASA on CD-ROM, that is, compact disc - read-only memory, in the Comet Halley Archive, Vol. 24 (IHW Staff, 1992). The redirection of the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, subsequently renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), toward Comet Giacobini-Zinner (1984e = 1985 XIII = 21P/Giacobini-Zinner) prompted the initiation of a formal watch on that comet, even as Comet P/Halley was in the first stage of its 1985-6 apparition. All the data collected on P/Giacobini-Zinner and P/Halley have been published on CD-ROM in the Comet Halley Archive (IHW Staff, 1992; Vol. 24 and Vols. 1 - 23, respectively; Vols. 25 - 26 contain spacecraft data and complete the set). This document contains a printed version of the archive data, collected by amateur astronomers, on these two comets. Volume 1 contains the Comet Giacobini-Zinner data archive and Volume 2 contains the Comet Halley archive. Both volumes include information on how to read the data in both archives, as well as a history of both comet watches (including the organizing of the network of astronomers and