Ison: The comet of the century | Hacker News Reader

Ison: The comet of the century

bbc.co.uk

61 pointsLibertatea16 comments

I'd like to recommend this article by Phil Plait aka Bad Astronomer. If there's any worthy astronomical event, he has it covered. And covered well.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/11/21/comet_is...

Calling Ison the comet of the century is not very helpful, it creates great expectations for a comet which so far has been very disappointing. So far it has been very underwhelming vs. earlier predictions. Hopefully on the other side of the sun it will do something great, if it survives, but I don't think very many astronomers think that's terribly likely.

Yeah, I'd really like to see articles start making profound statements once the comet becomes a spectacle. Until then, let's just say "Hey a Comet is in the Neighborhood!".

Although I entirely see your point. I am not sure what expectations you have of an astronomical artefact, I mean it hasn't been particularly spectacular to us in an aesthetic sense, but it's certainly been interesting to see it's interactions, if only as data points.

I think the wider point I mean is that comets don't give a shit about how pretty they look to us, so it's a tad absurd to consider them disappointing.

I actually quite enjoy looking at it, along with Lovejoy which doesn't get as much press but also is quite visible to the naked eye at a really dark location. Both of the commets are great, if you're into that kind of thing, which I am.

However, I only meant to point out that it could really dissuade beginners from every trying astronomy again, if such a "spectacular" once in a lifetime thing is just a little smudge which they can barely see through a telescope, so faint so far in fact that it would be very difficult for them to even find. Unlike truly spectacular commets, which are plainly visible to the naked eye, and for which hitting the tail is easy and following it to the nucleus is easy enough (and exciting) even for a beginner. I'm afraid a lot of people are buying telescopes just for this and may be disappointed that they can't even find it. Hopefully they aren't too disappointed and can eventually make good use of their scopes.

PS: too see a really spectacular commet, check out pictures of commet Mcnaught from just a few years ago. Absolutely incredible.

I have been tracking this story for six months.

Comets are notoriously fickle, and many astronomers are doubtful about ISON living up to its billing, but here's hoping ISON lives up to its "Comet of the Century" billing. Would make for an awesome display. Perhaps even daylight visible. Way cool.

Aside from the possible beautiful tail, this comet is on a hyperbolic trajectory and will never return.

Speed & Distance: http://www.cometison2013.co.uk/perihelion-and-distance/

I still remember Halley's comet and Hale-Bopp's. Both were exciting sight which reminded me in what type of environment we live in. That there's more to 'this' than what we see and concentrate on in our daily lives.

Comet of the century will be the one which is on a retrograde orbit and has a small chance of hitting Mars. If it hits Mars. Mostly because I'd love to see what a couple million tons of gas and water ice suddenly appearing on Mars would do.

<http://www.space.com/20060-comet-mars-2014-collision-explain...

Sadly it probably won't happen.

I like to think the Voyager bumped into it on its way out of the solar system, or perhaps the aliens in the Ooort cloud sending us a gift in exchange :-)

Cool comet though. So far I've only been able to see it once with my Mead ETX90 mostly because the damn Bay Area has a lot of clouds / fog in the morning. Hoping to have a setup for Thanksgiving morning the family can see it with. Lets keep our fingers cross for a clear night.

I am not sure this comet deserves the title of "comet of the century" just yet, but it is still an interesting exercise to observe the comet.

(Shameless Plug) If you need help to observe the comet, my Android app [1] just recently added support for comets. What sets the app apart is that, if you have a telescope, it can guide you with a single alignment of your telescope to a nearby star.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lavadip.sk...

>northern hemisphere

Every god damn time.

Wasn't comet McNaught a nice spectacle from southernly latitudes? I don't recall exactly when (before or after perihelion), but I remember hearing some talk about it.

Halley's did good in the Southern Hemisphere.

Maybe someone knows--How to best see this commet? Face east/west/north? Straight above?

In the article, caption to the large figure at the bottom: "Northern Hemisphere, Looking East-Southeast"

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