Probably nobody gives a shit, but this month there are two comets visible in the northern hemisphere, which is the kind of thing that I think is pretty cool, because I suck at life.

Comet Holmes has been visible for about a month, but it's pretty faint and I suspect it's impossible to see in and around Raleigh or any other well-lit area like that. Even if you live in the middle of nowhere like me, it's hard to appreciate except with binoculars.

Comet Tuttle hasn't been visible for quite as long, but it's quite a bit more visible. The other night, you could make out the nucleus and tail with the naked eye -- for a while. For reasons that my astronomy nut dad and I can't figure out, it got much less visible over the course of an hour or so, despite no apparent change in atmospheric conditions. It's supposed to come within .25 AU of Earth just after New Years.

If this were the middle ages, people would be shitting bricks. Two comets? Right around Christmas/New Years? Jesus must be pissed.

12/12/2007 3:27:46 PM

it'd be more useful if you told us which way to look

12/12/2007 4:21:07 PM

Quote :

"If this were the middle ages, people would be shitting bricks. Two comets? Right around Christmas/New Years? Jesus must be pissed."

12/12/2007 4:22:58 PM

haha

12/12/2007 4:31:56 PM

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"it'd be more useful if you told us which way to look"

they're right there next to uranus

12/12/2007 5:18:42 PM

Awesome

12/12/2007 5:23:36 PM

Quote :

"Probably nobody gives a shit, but this month there are two comets visible in the northern hemisphere, which is the kind of thing that I think is pretty cool, because I suck at life."

i care!

Quote :

"it'd be more useful if you told us which way to look "

and, not comets, but still interesting to see in the sky
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=United_States®ion=North_Carolina
tonight, Wed Dec 19/05:59 PM 2min 17max elev 11 above N 16 above NE

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 5:29 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2007 5:25:48 PM

lol Comet Holmes

better tell Will Smith

12/12/2007 6:01:50 PM

holmes to bel air would destroy life as we know it

12/12/2007 6:57:38 PM

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"it'd be more useful if you told us which way to look "

Up?

12/12/2007 8:54:18 PM

Thing is, I'm not that into astronomy, and whenever people try to explain verbally to me where I need to look they might as well be speaking mandarin for all I understand of it. Unless it's really obvious or right next to one of the three constellations I know, someone has to point.

So, in short, I didn't tell you where to look because I don't have any idea how.

Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to mention this -- briefly last month, Holmes was the largest object in the solar system. Even larger than the sun. Nobody (as far as I've read) knows why, but every so often the coma flares up massively. It's far away and not producing any light of its own so it doesn't look as impressive as the largest object in the solar system should, but still.

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 9:08 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2007 9:05:32 PM

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"So, in short, I didn't tell you where to look because I don't have any idea how."

Just give cardinal directions (North/East/South/West), and the zenith, or how far up. As it is, I can't find anything about it on NASA's site.

12/12/2007 11:00:06 PM

yo if i'm on the left side of avent ferry facing toward campus where do i look?

12/13/2007 12:50:54 AM

Quote :

"briefly last month, Holmes was the largest object in the solar system. Even larger than the sun. Nobody (as far as I've read) knows why, but every so often the coma flares up massively. It's far away and not producing any light of its own so it doesn't look as impressive as the largest object in the solar system should, but still."

cool!

12/13/2007 1:49:48 AM

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10862521.html

that's the link to find out where to look to see the comet. it tells you where to look based on where you are.

12/13/2007 1:54:15 AM

i believe it was so large because part of the core collapsed on itself (it's been theorized that Holmes has a honeycomb structure and one of the cells collapsed)...that exposed a lot of frozen gases to the sun's radiations and thus "grew" the comet as the gasses vaporized and created a much larger cloud

but then again, I could be wrong

I just bought this http://tinyurl.com/2pwwaw for my girlfriend for christmas


[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 9:17 AM. Reason : .]

12/13/2007 9:15:21 AM

Quote :

"Thing is, I'm not that into astronomy, and whenever people try to explain verbally to me where I need to look they might as well be speaking mandarin for all I understand of it. Unless it's really obvious or right next to one of the three constellations I know, someone has to point."

directions such as "11 above N" or "16 above NE" are pretty easy to understand. face north and look up 11 degrees...

12/13/2007 9:19:29 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Swift-Tuttle

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"The comet is on an orbit which will almost certainly eventually hit either the Earth or the Moon, though not within this millennium.[1] Upon its 1992 rediscovery, the comet's date of perihelion passage was off from the then-current prediction by 17 days. It was then noticed that, if its next perihelion passage (August 14, 2126) was also off by another 15 days, the comet would very likely strike the Earth or Moon. However, the orbit was improved by the identification of earlier passages, dating as far back as 69 BC, and the new orbit's stability turned out to be greater than expected, making the threat disappear.[2]"

12/13/2007 9:20:20 AM