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The Comet's Tale
THE COMET’S TALE Newsletter of the Comet Section of the British Astronomical Association Volume 5, No 1 (Issue 9), 1998 May A May Day in February! Comet Section Meeting, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, 1998 February 14 The day started early for me, or attention and there were displays to correct Guide Star magnitudes perhaps I should say the previous of the latest comet light curves in the same field. If you haven’t day finished late as I was up till and photographs of comet Hale- got access to this catalogue then nearly 3am. This wasn’t because Bopp taken by Michael Hendrie you can always give a field sketch the sky was clear or a Valentine’s and Glynn Marsh. showing the stars you have used Ball, but because I’d been reffing in the magnitude estimate and I an ice hockey match at The formal session started after will make the reduction. From Peterborough! Despite this I was lunch, and I opened the talks with these magnitude estimates I can at the IOA to welcome the first some comments on visual build up a light curve which arrivals and to get things set up observation. Detailed instructions shows the variation in activity for the day, which was more are given in the Section guide, so between different comets. Hale- reminiscent of May than here I concentrated on what is Bopp has demonstrated that February. The University now done with the observations and comets can stray up to a offers an undergraduate why it is important to be accurate magnitude from the mean curve, astronomy course and lectures are and objective when making them. -
Ice& Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 51: DECEMBER 13-19 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 51 Authored by Alan Hale COMET OF THE WEEK: The Great Comet of 1680 Perihelion: 1680 December 18.49, q = 0.006 AU The Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam in The Netherlands, during late December 1680 as painted by the Dutch artist Lieve Verschuier. This particular comet was undoubtedly one of the brightest comets of the 17th Century, but it is also one of the most important comets in history from a scientific perspective, and perhaps even from the perspective of overall human history. While there were certainly plenty of superstitions attached to the comet’s appearance, the scientific investigations made of it were among the beginnings of the era in European history we now call The Enlightenment, and indeed, in a sense the Great Comet of 1680 can perhaps be considered as one of the sparks of that era. The significance began with the comet’s discovery, which was made on the morning of November 14, 1680, by a German astronomer residing in Coburg, Gottfried Kirch – the first comet ever to be discovered by means of a telescope. It was already around 4th magnitude at that time, and located near the star Regulus in the constellation Leo; from that point it traveled eastward and brightened rapidly, being closest to Earth (0.42 AU) on November 30. By that time it was a conspicuous naked-eye object with a tail 20 to 30 degrees long, and it remained visible for another week before disappearing into morning twilight. -
The Comet's Tale
THE COMET’S TALE Journal of the Comet Section of the British Astronomical Association Number 33, 2014 January Not the Comet of the Century 2013 R1 (Lovejoy) imaged by Damian Peach on 2013 December 24 using 106mm F5. STL-11k. LRGB. L: 7x2mins. RGB: 1x2mins. Today’s images of bright binocular comets rival drawings of Great Comets of the nineteenth century. Rather predictably the expected comet of the century Contents failed to materialise, however several of the other comets mentioned in the last issue, together with the Comet Section contacts 2 additional surprise shown above, put on good From the Director 2 appearances. 2011 L4 (PanSTARRS), 2012 F6 From the Secretary 3 (Lemmon), 2012 S1 (ISON) and 2013 R1 (Lovejoy) all Tales from the past 5 th became brighter than 6 magnitude and 2P/Encke, 2012 RAS meeting report 6 K5 (LINEAR), 2012 L2 (LINEAR), 2012 T5 (Bressi), Comet Section meeting report 9 2012 V2 (LINEAR), 2012 X1 (LINEAR), and 2013 V3 SPA meeting - Rob McNaught 13 (Nevski) were all binocular objects. Whether 2014 will Professional tales 14 bring such riches remains to be seen, but three comets The Legacy of Comet Hunters 16 are predicted to come within binocular range and we Project Alcock update 21 can hope for some new discoveries. We should get Review of observations 23 some spectacular close-up images of 67P/Churyumov- Prospects for 2014 44 Gerasimenko from the Rosetta spacecraft. BAA COMET SECTION NEWSLETTER 2 THE COMET’S TALE Comet Section contacts Director: Jonathan Shanklin, 11 City Road, CAMBRIDGE. CB1 1DP England. Phone: (+44) (0)1223 571250 (H) or (+44) (0)1223 221482 (W) Fax: (+44) (0)1223 221279 (W) E-Mail: [email protected] or [email protected] WWW page : http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/ Assistant Director (Observations): Guy Hurst, 16 Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, BASINGSTOKE, Hampshire. -
Prime Focus Page 2 August 2020 the Third Time Is Indeed the Charm
Highlights of the August Sky - - - 1st - - - DAWN: Venus and Zeta (ζ) Tauri are less than 2° apart. DUSK: A waxing gibbous Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn form a triangle. - - - 3rd - - - Full Moon 11:59 am EDT KAS - - - 9th - - - AM: Mars and a waning gibbous Moon are 1° apart. Perseid Potluck Picnic: Saturday, August 8 @ 6:00 pm - - - 11th - - - Last Quarter Moon ― Canceled Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic ― 12:45 pm EDT PM: Perseid Meteor Shower Member Observing: Saturday, August 8 @ 9:00 pm peaks. Jupiter, Saturn & The Summer Triangle • See Page 13 for Details th - - - 13 - - - AM: A waning crescent Moon and Aldebaran are Training Session: August 14, 21 & 28 @ 8:00 pm less than 4° apart. Owl Observatory • See Page 14 for Details and to Register th - - - 15 - - - DAWN: A slender waning crescent Moon is 3.5° to the Member Observing: Saturday, August 22 @ 9:00 pm upper le of Venus. Jupiter, Saturn & Summer Nebulae • See Page 13 for Details - - - 18th - - - New Moon 10:42 pm EDT - - - 22nd - - - Inside the Newsletter. DUSK: A waxing crescent Moon is over 5° to Spica’s upper right. Board Meeng Minutes..................... p. 2 - - - 25th - - - Observaons of NEOWISE................. p. 3 First Quarter Moon 1:58 pm EDT Member NEOWISE Images................ p. 4 DUSK: The Moon is 6° to the KAS Member Observatories...............p. 7 upper right of Antares. Stellar Walkabout.............................. p. 8 th - - - 27 - - - NASA Night Sky Notes........................ p. 10 DUSK: The Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn form a line. Membership of the KAS..................... p. 11 - - - 28th - - - August Night Sky................................ p. 12 DUSK: A gibbous Moon and Jupiter are separated by 2°. -
Investigating the Neutral Sodium Emissions Observed at Comets
Investigating the neutral sodium emissions observed at comets K. S. Birkett M.Sci. Physics, Imperial College London, UK (2012) Department of Space and Climate Physics University College London Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey. RH5 6NT. United Kingdom THESIS Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University College London 2017 2 I, Kimberley Si^anBirkett, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 Abstract Neutral sodium emission is typically very easy to detect in comets, and has been seen to form a distinct neutral sodium tail at some comets. If the source of neutral cometary sodium could be determined, it would shed light on the composition of the comet, therefore allowing deeper understanding of the conditions present in the early solar system. Detection of neutral sodium emission at other solar system objects has also been used to infer chemical and physical processes that are difficult to measure directly. Neutral cometary sodium tails were first studied in depth at comet Hale-Bopp, but to date the source of neutral sodium in comets has not been determined. Many authors considered that orbital motion may be a significant factor in conclusively identifying the source of neutral sodium, so in this work details of the development of the first fully heliocentric distance and velocity dependent orbital model, known as COMPASS, are presented. COMPASS is then applied to a range of neutral sodium observations, includ- ing spectroscopic measurements at comet Hale-Bopp, wide field images of comet Hale- Bopp, and SOHO/LASCO observations of neutral sodium tails at near-Sun comets. -
Comet Kohoutek (NASA 990 Convair )
Madrid, UCM, Oct 27, 2017 Comets in UV Shustov B., Sachkov M., Savanov I. Comets – major part of minor body population of the Solar System There are a lot of comets in the Solar System. (Oort cloud contains cometary 4 bodies which total mass is ~ 5 ME , ~10 higher than mass of the Main Asteroid Belt). Comets keep dynamical, mineralogical, chemical, and structural information that is critically important for understanding origin and early evolution of the Solar System. Comets are considered as important objects in the aspect of space threats and resources. Comets are intrinsically different from one another (A’Hearn+1995). 2 General comments on UV observations of comets Observations in the UV range are very informative, because this range contains the majority of аstrophysically significant resonance lines of atoms (OI, CI, HI, etc.), molecules (CO, CO2, OH etc.), and their ions. UV background is relatively low. UV imaging and spectroscopy are both widely used. In order to solve most of the problems, the UV data needs to be complemented observations in other ranges including ground-based observations. 3 First UV observations of comets from space Instruments Feeding Resolu Spectral range Comets Found optics tion Orbiting Astronomical 4x200mm ~10 Å 1100-2000 Å Bennett OH (1657 Å) Observatory (OAO-2) ~20 Å 2000-4000 Å С/1969 Y1 OI (1304 Å) 2 scanning spectrophotometers Launched in 1968 Orbiting Geophysical ~100cm2 Bennett Lyman-α Observatory (OGO-5) С/1969 Y1 halo Launched in 1968 Aerobee sounding D=50mm ~1 Å 1100-1800 Å Tago- Lyman-α halo rocket Sato- wide-angle all-reflective Kosaka spectrograph С/1969 Y1 Launched in 1970 Skylab 3 space station D=75mm Kohoutek Huge Lyman- Launched in 1973 С/1969 Y1 α halo NASA 990 Convair D=300mm Kohoutek OH (3090Å) aircraft. -
Curriculum Vitae Donna M. Pierce ! Department of Physics and Astronomy Phone: 662-325-2914 P.O
Curriculum Vitae Donna M. Pierce ! Department of Physics and Astronomy Phone: 662-325-2914 P.O. Box 5167 Fax: 662-325-8898 Mississippi State, MS 39762-5167 E-Mail: [email protected] ! ! !Education Ph.D. Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park 2006 Dissertation: Formation and Destruction of Carbon Monoxide in Cometary Comae Advisor: Michael F. A’Hearn M.S. Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park 2000 B.S. Physics, University of Kentucky 1997 Summa Cum Laude Departmental Honors in Physics ! !Employment History Associate Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy Aug. 2013 – Present Mississippi State University Assistant Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy Jan. 2007 – Aug. 2013 Mississippi State University Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Astronomy May – Dec. 2006 University of Texas at Austin Research Fellow Department of Astronomy Oct. 2005 – April 2006 University of Texas at Austin Graduate Research Assistant Department of Astronomy June 2000 – Sept. 2005 University of Maryland, College Park Astronomy Tutor University of Maryland Oct. – Dec. 2001 Academic Achievement Programs Graduate Teaching Assistant Department of Astronomy June 1999 – May 2000 University of Maryland, College Park Summer Intern Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics June – Aug. 1997 & 1998 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory Assistant Optics and Spectroscopy Laboratory Aug. – Dec. 1996 Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Kentucky REU Student Department of Physics and Astronomy June – Aug. 1996 University of Nevada -
Astronomický Ústav SAV Správa O
Astronomický ústav SAV Správa o činnosti organizácie SAV za rok 2018 Tatranská Lomnica január 2019 Obsah osnovy Správy o činnosti organizácie SAV za rok 2018 1. Základné údaje o organizácii 2. Vedecká činnosť 3. Doktorandské štúdium, iná pedagogická činnosť a budovanie ľudských zdrojov pre vedu a techniku 4. Medzinárodná vedecká spolupráca 5. Vedná politika 6. Spolupráca s VŠ a inými subjektmi v oblasti vedy a techniky 7. Spolupráca s aplikačnou a hospodárskou sférou 8. Aktivity pre Národnú radu SR, vládu SR, ústredné orgány štátnej správy SR a iné organizácie 9. Vedecko-organizačné a popularizačné aktivity 10. Činnosť knižnično-informačného pracoviska 11. Aktivity v orgánoch SAV 12. Hospodárenie organizácie 13. Nadácie a fondy pri organizácii SAV 14. Iné významné činnosti organizácie SAV 15. Vyznamenania, ocenenia a ceny udelené organizácii a pracovníkom organizácie SAV 16. Poskytovanie informácií v súlade so zákonom o slobodnom prístupe k informáciám 17. Problémy a podnety pre činnosť SAV PRÍLOHY A Zoznam zamestnancov a doktorandov organizácie k 31.12.2018 B Projekty riešené v organizácii C Publikačná činnosť organizácie D Údaje o pedagogickej činnosti organizácie E Medzinárodná mobilita organizácie F Vedecko-popularizačná činnosť pracovníkov organizácie SAV Správa o činnosti organizácie SAV 1. Základné údaje o organizácii 1.1. Kontaktné údaje Názov: Astronomický ústav SAV Riaditeľ: Mgr. Martin Vaňko, PhD. Zástupca riaditeľa: Mgr. Peter Gömöry, PhD. Vedecký tajomník: Mgr. Marián Jakubík, PhD. Predseda vedeckej rady: RNDr. Luboš Neslušan, CSc. Člen snemu SAV: Mgr. Marián Jakubík, PhD. Adresa: Astronomický ústav SAV, 059 60 Tatranská Lomnica https://www.ta3.sk Tel.: neuvedený Fax: neuvedený E-mail: neuvedený Názvy a adresy detašovaných pracovísk: Astronomický ústav - Oddelenie medziplanetárnej hmoty Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 04 Bratislava Vedúci detašovaných pracovísk: Astronomický ústav - Oddelenie medziplanetárnej hmoty prof. -
A Model of the Physical Properties of Comet Encke
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730024004 2020-03-23T01:27:56+00:00Z NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Technical Report 32-1590 A Model of the Physical Properties of Comet Encke F. W, Taylor C. M. Michaux R, L Newburn, Jr. Hm 3- £r" JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA October 1, 1973 NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Technical Report 32-1590 A Model of the Physical Properties of Comet Encke F. W. Taylor C. M. Michaux R. L. Newburn, Jr. JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA October 1, 1973 Preface The work described in this report was performed by the Space Sciences Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Comet Encke is presently regarded as the likely target of NASA's first cometary mission, probably a slow flyby projected to take place in 1980. This document presents a model of Encke which is intended to be useful for the design of scientific experiments and spacecraft systems for such a mission. Data on the physical properties of comets are generally very sparse, and Encke is no exception. Much of the numerical information contained herein is, there- fore, based on calculations of a highly conjectural nature, and the results have large uncertainties associated with 'them. The user is cautioned that this is a model and not a specification, and must be treated as such if it is to be useful. The starting point for this work was an earlier study of Encke (Ref. 9) prepared by the TRW Systems Group under contract to JPL. -
Thermal Properties, Sizes, and Size Distribution of Jupiter-Family
Thermal Properties, Sizes, and Size Distribution of Jupiter-Family Cometary Nuclei Y. R. Fern´andeza, M. S. Kelleyb, P. L. Lamyc, I. Tothc,d, O. Groussinc, C. M. Lissee, M. F. A’Hearnb, J. M. Bauerf , H. Campinsa, A. Fitzsimmonsg , J. Licandroh, S. C. Lowryi, K. J. Meechj , J. Pittichov´af , W. T. Reachk, C. Snodgrassl, H. A. Weavere a Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL 32816-2385, U.S.A. +1-407-823-6939, [email protected] b Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421, U.S.A. c Aix Marseille Universit´e, CNRS, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille UMR 7326, 13388, Marseille, France d Konkoly Observatory MTA CSFK CSI, PO Box 67, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary e Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Univ., 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel, MD 20723, U.S.A. f Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, U.S.A. g Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s Univ., Belfast BT7 1NN, U.K. h Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, c/Via Lactea s/n, 38200 La Laguna, Spain i School of Physical Sciences, Univ. of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, U.K. j NASA Astrobiology Institute, Institute for Astronomy, Univ. of Hawai‘i, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., Honolulu, HI 96822, U.S.A. k Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035, U.S.A. l Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Plank-Str. 2, 37191 Katlenburg- Lindau, Germany To appear in the journal Icarus. -
Ice& Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 53: DECEMBER 27-31 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 53 Authored by Alan Hale This week in history DECEMBER 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 DECEMBER 27, 1984: A team of American meteorite hunters finds the meteorite ALH 84001 in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica. This meteorite was found to have come from Mars, and in 1996 a team led by NASA scientist David McKay reported the presence of possible “microfossils” and other evidence of potential biological activity within it. This is the subject of a previous “Special Topics” presentation. DECEMBER 27, 2020: The main-belt asteroid (41) Daphne (around which a small moon, named Peneius, was discovered in 2008) will occult the 7th-magnitude star HD 49385 in Monoceros. The predicted path of the occultation crosses Oregon, the northern Pacific Ocean, the southern part of the island of Sakhalin, far southeastern Russia, far northeastern China, northern Mongolia, and east-central Kazakhstan. DECEMBER 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 DECEMBER 28, 1969: Amateur astronomer John Bennett in South Africa discovers the comet now known as Comet Bennett 1969i. Around the time of its perihelion passage in March 1970 it became a bright naked-eye comet and it is the first Great“ Comet” that I ever observed; it is a previous “Comet of the Week.” DECEMBER 28, 1973: Comet Kohoutek 1973f passes through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.142 AU. Although it did not become the “Great Comet” that had been originally expected, it was nevertheless a moderately conspicuous naked-eye object and was an important comet scientifically. -
Ice & Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 9: FEBRUARY 23-29, 2020 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 9 Authored by Alan Hale This week in history FEBRUARY 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 FEBRUARY 23, 1988: David Levy obtains the final visual observation of Comet 1P/Halley during its 1986 eturn,r using the 1.5-meter telescope at Catalina Observatory in Arizona. The comet was located 8.0 AU from the sun and appeared at 17th magnitude. FEBRUARY 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 FEBRUARY 24, 1979: The U.S. Defense Department satellite P78-1 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. One of P78-1’s instruments was the SOLWIND coronagraph, which detected ten comets between 1979 and 1984, nine of which were Kreutz sungrazers and the first of these being the first comet ever discovered from space. SOLWIND continued to operate up until the time P78-1 was deliberately destroyed in September 1985 as part of an Anti-Satellite weapon (ASAT) test. The first SOLWIND comet is a future “Comet of the Week” and Kreutz sungrazers as a whole are the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation. FEBRUARY 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 FEBRUARY 25, 1976: Comet West 1975n passes through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.197 AU. Comet West, which is next week’s “Comet of the Week,” was one of the brightest comets that appeared during the second half of the 20th Century, and I personally consider it the best comet I have ever seen. COVER IMAGEs CREDITS: Front cover: Three impact craters of different sizes, arranged in the shape of a snowman, make up one of the most striking features on Vesta, as seen in this view from NASA’s Dawn mission.