September 19, 2014 #140 - An Eye Full Of Comets

If you are like me a new comet discovery is like candy to a child. When I was a young lad, well before the Internet, news of comet discoveries was very hard to get in a timely manner. Bright ones might be reported in the newspaper. You had to eagerly await the latest issue of Sky & Telescope, open the monthly Comet Section, and see what was offered. Maps for easy location at the scope, would then be hand drawn.  I then waited with telescope all set up, way before sunset, forgetting that twilight would hide the faint fuzzies till frost had bitten my toes and nose, and the fingers were too stiff with cold to operate the focus controls.

The astronomical artists visions were as close as you could get, at that time, to the comets surface.

Jump 50+ years. Now you can see comets on the Internet hours after discovery, from around the world where night is ever a canvas for detailed observation by digital photographic magic through amateur telescopes that are better than the professional instruments of that time.

Today I sit at a computer and gasp at the visions of cliffs, boulders, and the origin of dust and gas as they form the comets tail. My grasp of reality is lost as I see in fact what my imagination dreamed of at the eyepiece.

Our roving mechanical explorers are right now looking at comets, asteroids, polar vortices's on Saturn, light reflecting on the lakes of Titan, moons dancing around Pluto, and close ups of Mercury. Giant telescopes that adjust to the ripples of the atmosphere are finding planets around other stars and may soon even find their moons. At times I despair of trying to keep up with new knowledge. I was trying to keep up with the latest astronomical findings on Twitter yesterday and could not read fast enough to keep up with new reports. I would check one or two and a dozen more would pop up!

How will it be possible for my grandchildren to keep up in another 50 years?

I am including in this post a Comet Jacques (C/2014 E2) pic I took with a Canon EOS 70D at 24mm, 30sec., f/5.7, ISO 4000. This was on the night of 8.27.2014. The second is a 300X section showing the comet. Not very good but it's a first attempt with this camera. The seeing was excellent I could see M33 with the naked eye!  

 





Clear Sky - Rich