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Post by FLCardinalFan on Jul 17, 2022 7:38:32 GMT -7
This will be moved to weird Stuff section later
But it is breaking news
This is a live view
Today 7/17/22 is the best day to view the Comet
In 24 minutes from now & counting 11:01 is the best view
Here is the Link:
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Post by End Zone on Jul 17, 2022 14:39:58 GMT -7
Thanks for posting the biggest comet fly-by ever, or at least in the last 66 million years! The 11-mile wide icy rock is passing through the middle part of the solar system for the first time ever, so say some astrophysicists. Next comet flyby? Uh, a long time from today. I'm not guessing about that. I do know that if this comet hits the earth, all things in my town will be a lot different the next day. It is not known why this big icy rock is just now making it's first appearance after being parked in the Oort Cloud for well over 3 billion years. A rock that big does not move out of its comfort zone unless something much bigger gave it a push. Is the solar system also experiencing climate change? That explains why the comet is spinning out of control and melting. The comet's former neighborhood was a chilly -400F 24 hours a day. Sometime around 2032, the biggest comet ever spotted by Hubble will enter the inner solar system on an inaugural trip around the sun. Not to worry though. The 85-mile diameter rock, bigger than Rhode Island state is wide, has zero chance of bumping into the Earth or any of the solar system planets. Reference phys.org article phys.org/news/2022-04-astronomers-size-largest-comet-bigger.html
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Post by thomas cat on Jul 17, 2022 17:43:59 GMT -7
When I was just a kid, I remember my grandmother telling me about the time she saw Haley's Comet when she was a kid...1910. That really caught my imagination. I had seen pictures of it and couldn't wait for its return in 1986. It returns every 75 years, so I only had about 25 years to wait....lol. Those 25 years passed by, and I was ready for it. What a disappointment. It was so dim, I never got to see it. It may have been brighter in her day due to varying circumstances, but I think the biggest culprit was light pollution. Unlike now, in her day there were few city lights. I'm pretty sure if I got out of the city and away from lights, I could have seen it. Even then, comets are so dim, you need truly dark skies to see them well. Here is a light pollution map.... If you live in a green area or far worse yellow, orange, red, or god forbid white. You are not going to see much at all. The only thing you are going to see is the moon ( heck, it's so bright you can see it in the daytime ) the brightest stars and some of the planets. Comets, nebules and galaxies...well forget about it. They are just too dim to overcome the light pollution. Actually, comets are more common than you think. This is cut and pasted from this link"Recently, a friend of mine asked when we might be able to see a comet. He was surprised when I said there are several visible right now.
But none gets brighter than magnitude +12 (lower magnitudes are brighter), and the comets are visible only under dark, clear skies, using moderately large telescopes. Indeed, the vast majority of periodic comets — comets whose orbits are well known and have been observed more than once — fall into this category. These comets quietly come and go and are known only to enthusiastic amateur astronomers who make a concerted effort to hunt them down with good binoculars or telescopes. Generally, they are unimpressive to the eye, usually appearing as nothing more than faint fuzzballs, even in large telescopes." "A rock that big does not move out of its comfort zone unless something much bigger gave it a push."
It's not been proven, but there is a theory that there is a ninth planet. One that has an orbital path that is well beyond Pluto and has an elliptical orbit that takes many millions of years to complete. Considering that and at its furthest from the sun it may well be close enough to nudge some of these Ort cloud objects into a path towards our sun. It may even explain not only the dinosaur killer, but other mass extinctions every 100 millions of years or so. It's just a theory, but it makes sense.
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Post by End Zone on Jul 18, 2022 2:19:41 GMT -7
When I was just a kid, I remember my grandmother telling me about the time she saw Haley's Comet when she was a kid...1910. That really caught my imagination. I had seen pictures of it and couldn't wait for its return in 1986. It returns every 75 years, so I only had about 25 years to wait....lol. Those 25 years passed by, and I was ready for it. What a disappointment. It was so dim, I never got to see it. It may have been brighter in her day due to varying circumstances, but I think the biggest culprit was light pollution. Unlike now, in her day there were few city lights. I'm pretty sure if I got out of the city and away from lights, I could have seen it. Even then, comets are so dim, you need truly dark skies to see them well. Here is a light pollution map.... If you live in a green area or far worse yellow, orange, red, or god forbid white. You are not going to see much at all. The only thing you are going to see is the moon ( heck, it's so bright you can see it in the daytime ) the brightest stars and some of the planets. Comets, nebules and galaxies...well forget about it. They are just too dim to overcome the light pollution. Actually, comets are more common than you think. This is cut and pasted from this link"Recently, a friend of mine asked when we might be able to see a comet. He was surprised when I said there are several visible right now.
But none gets brighter than magnitude +12 (lower magnitudes are brighter), and the comets are visible only under dark, clear skies, using moderately large telescopes. Indeed, the vast majority of periodic comets — comets whose orbits are well known and have been observed more than once — fall into this category. These comets quietly come and go and are known only to enthusiastic amateur astronomers who make a concerted effort to hunt them down with good binoculars or telescopes. Generally, they are unimpressive to the eye, usually appearing as nothing more than faint fuzzballs, even in large telescopes." "A rock that big does not move out of its comfort zone unless something much bigger gave it a push."
It's not been proven, but there is a theory that there is a ninth planet. One that has an orbital path that is well beyond Pluto and has an elliptical orbit that takes many millions of years to complete. Considering that and at its furthest from the sun it may well be close enough to nudge some of these Ort cloud objects into a path towards our sun. It may even explain not only the dinosaur killer, but other mass extinctions every 100 millions of years or so. It's just a theory, but it makes sense. Nice write-up, TC. My long-passed grandfather mentioned also seeing Haley's comet in the early 1900s. He said the comet was so bright that he could see his shadow on the ground at night. He lived in south-central Missouri and outdoor lights were extremely rare. Yep, light pollution is a real problem and greatly affects sky-watching thrills. I saw just one comet in my lifetime, about 10 years ago, while using 10x50 Steiner binoculars. I was fortunate to see the comet. It was no more than a fuzzy ball no bigger than a rain drop. However, I also remember that the light pollution was awful. The best stargazing that I have ever done was at sea and hundreds of miles from any land. Try the southern hemisphere seas sometime. The night sky is awesome. A northern hemisphere trained hunter, I could not navigate night seas using the southern stars. JWST is our best chance to spot that theoretical 9th planet which some mathematicians claim is affecting the outer planet's orbits and causing some of the Oort Cloud rocks to move out of their frozen-in-time orbits. Something is out there beyond the planetoid Pluto and it is big enough to affect other planet's and rock's orbital paths probably every million years or so.
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Post by thomas cat on Jul 22, 2022 19:04:44 GMT -7
"Try the southern hemisphere seas sometime. The night sky is awesome. A northern hemisphere trained hunter, I could not navigate night seas using the southern stars."I know exactly what you are talking about....that is northern hemisphere vs southern hemisphere. Unlike the north that has Polaris, the south has no star or constellation that remains directly south as the Earth rotates through the night. I have never been to the south, but I know all about the northern star Polaris and how to find it and use it. In 8th grade I did a science project to find my latitude by making a homemade sextant. All it took was a piece of carboard, a ruler with a pivot point to create a sight line and a protractor to measure the angle. To be clear, I didn't figure this out on my own, but I did build it using my own design. Even though this was a super simple instrument, I came within a degree or two. My science teacher was impressed, I got an A-. As I'm sure you know. Polaris is directly above the north pole when you look straight up, and it stays there even as the earth rotates. It's the only star that remains in place. All the other one's circle around it. ( it's not that there are actually circling it ), it just looks that way due to the Earth rotation. As you go further south from the north pole, it gets lower in the sky. By measuring the angle, you can determine your latitude. Even if you don't care what latitude you are at, you can still find what way is north just by finding the north star. I have actually used this on a few occasions. For anyone who wants to know how to find the NorthStar ( Polaris ) look for the big dipper and... Knowing this and knowing where north is may just get you out of a jam if you are lost....lol
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Post by End Zone on Jul 23, 2022 3:13:34 GMT -7
"Try the southern hemisphere seas sometime. The night sky is awesome. A northern hemisphere trained hunter, I could not navigate night seas using the southern stars."I know exactly what you are talking about....that is northern hemisphere vs southern hemisphere. Unlike the north that has Polaris, the south has no star or constellation that remains directly south as the Earth rotates through the night. I have never been to the south, but I know all about the northern star Polaris and how to find it and use it. In 8th grade I did a science project to find my latitude by making a homemade sextant. All it took was a piece of carboard, a ruler with a pivot point to create a sight line and a protractor to measure the angle. To be clear, I didn't figure this out on my own, but I did build it using my own design. Even though this was a super simple instrument, I came within a degree or two. My science teacher was impressed, I got an A-. As I'm sure you know. Polaris is directly above the north pole when you look straight up, and it stays there even as the earth rotates. It's the only star that remains in place. All the other one's circle around it. ( it's not that there are actually circling it ), it just looks that way due to the Earth rotation. As you go further south from the north pole, it gets lower in the sky. By measuring the angle, you can determine your latitude. Even if you don't care what latitude you are at, you can still find what way is north just by finding the north star. I have actually used this on a few occasions. For anyone who wants to know how to find the NorthStar ( Polaris ) look for the big dipper and... Knowing this and knowing where north is may just get you out of a jam if you are lost....lol Every human should know how to navigate by the stars. Kids are so sheltered now. None know how to move around without Google Maps. Thank for sharing the school project and glad you got an A-. Ancient Pacific and European sailing mariners used the same process that you describe above. They located the big bright northern hemisphere star, e.g., Polaris, noted the star's angle above the horizon, the calendar date, and the time of day or night. By knowing their position by latitude, 01N to 90N, they traveled safely across the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Star navigation is a bit trickier in the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Cross arcs across the night sky but its south star always points in the direction of the south pole axis. Keep the Southern Cross on your right shoulder at night on a west to east equatorial ocean transit and you can safely transit all the way from Indonesia to Tahiti. From Tahiti, turn left, transit directly north until Polaris appears at it's lowest point on the horizon in the night sky. Then turn right. Next stop is the Hawaiian Islands. If you miss Hawaii in 2-3 weeks of sailing eastward, reverse course and head back to Tahiti. Hope for rain to refill water supplies before dying of thirst. I hear the fishing is good from Indonesia to just west of Hawaii. You won't starve.
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