Busy, busy, busy...
Has it been this long since I updated here?? Aren't I a bad blogger to leave you all hanging like that??
Anyhow, update time. Spent an unexpected but welcome short break with Ally, meeting up with her mad friends Sarah and Shereen - hi girls! - PS Sarah like having her bum spanked BTW! hehehe. It was all good though.
While I was away, something happened in the astronomy world that had astronomers all over the world scrambling to find a dark sky as soon as possible.
A formerly unexceptional comet, dimly glowing at a level that would need BIG telescopes to even find it, suddenly brightened up to a point where you can go out into your backyard and just look up and its obvious.
17P/Holmes - which was discovered in 1892 - suddenly appeared and has created much debate and discussion and will continue to do so. As a consequence of its appearance, I've been down the observatory on many nights, helping the team image the comet. Our best effort is easily this one (its a bit big for the blogger page so its an external link.)
Should you want to have a pop at finding it, and it looks good in binoculars, this map should be useful:
This is in the northwest, and if you can find the obvious cluster that is the Pleiades, then the comet shouldn't be a problem! However, its not a stereotypical comet so don't expect a long flowing tail. At 2 and half times the earth-sun distance, the solar wind isn't strong enough. But have fun anyway.
Anyhow, update time. Spent an unexpected but welcome short break with Ally, meeting up with her mad friends Sarah and Shereen - hi girls! - PS Sarah like having her bum spanked BTW! hehehe. It was all good though.
While I was away, something happened in the astronomy world that had astronomers all over the world scrambling to find a dark sky as soon as possible.
A formerly unexceptional comet, dimly glowing at a level that would need BIG telescopes to even find it, suddenly brightened up to a point where you can go out into your backyard and just look up and its obvious.
17P/Holmes - which was discovered in 1892 - suddenly appeared and has created much debate and discussion and will continue to do so. As a consequence of its appearance, I've been down the observatory on many nights, helping the team image the comet. Our best effort is easily this one (its a bit big for the blogger page so its an external link.)
Should you want to have a pop at finding it, and it looks good in binoculars, this map should be useful:
This is in the northwest, and if you can find the obvious cluster that is the Pleiades, then the comet shouldn't be a problem! However, its not a stereotypical comet so don't expect a long flowing tail. At 2 and half times the earth-sun distance, the solar wind isn't strong enough. But have fun anyway.
posted by Rob at 11:30 am
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