Archives for the 'comets' Category
Brownleeite
Published on 15 Jun 2008 at 2:21 pm.
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Filed under comets.
(Updated June 17)
It isn’t every day that a new mineral is discovered. But, I recently read a NASA press release about a new mineral discovered in some comet dust. The mineral is being named brownleeite in honor of University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee. He is a pioneer in the study of […]
Crystals and Comet McNaught
Published on 9 Jan 2008 at 1:59 pm.
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Filed under comets, conference blogging.
One year ago, C/2006 P1 (Comet McNaught) was making all sorts of news as it put on a wonderful naked eye performance. At the time, though, I was at the AAS Meeting in Seattle, where it was rainy the whole time (except for when it snowed!). I finally got to see the comet, […]
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Starting the year with a comet
Published on 1 Jan 2008 at 5:45 pm.
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2007 was a year for spectacular comets. First there was Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) in January. I almost missed that one, as I was in Seattle at an American Astronomical Society meeting. Then, a couple months ago, we had Comet Holmes (P/17 Holmes). Both comets were visible to the naked eye […]
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Integrated Magnitude and Comet Holmes
Published on 4 Nov 2007 at 12:26 pm.
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Filed under astronomy, comets.
Raw observational data for magnitude estimates for Comet Holmes suggest that the comet is holding at a magnitude of about 2.5 or so. Some estimates are a bit brighter, and some are a bit dimmer. But, people are asking me why it is getting harder to see the comet if it is staying […]
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Comet Holmes’ Tail
Published on 2 Nov 2007 at 5:43 pm.
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Comet Holmes is now showing a tail. A hint of the tail can be seen in the following picture taken by Norway’s Mikkel Steine and posted to the Spaceweather.com comet gallery. The tail is very faint, but it can be seen pointed off to the right in the photograph. The tail is […]
Yet another Comet Holmes Photo
Published on 29 Oct 2007 at 5:37 pm.
10 Comments.
Filed under astrophotography, comets.
One of my readers, Don Spain, send me this image that he took of the comet. I am posting it with his permission. The object is 17P/Holmes. The photo was taken through a 152mm achromat with an IR cutoff filter.
In the photo, you see what look like two bright nuclei. In […]
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Comet Holmes and Perseus
Published on 28 Oct 2007 at 12:16 am.
9 Comments.
Filed under astrophotography, comets.
I took this photo a few hours ago.
It shows the comet in the constellation Perseus over the roof of my house. You can compare the photo with the finder chart that I created for my October 25 posting. Â The photo was taken with a 6 second exposure using a Pentax K110 digital SLR, […]
