On 22nd April 2009, Earth will pass through a debris stream left by the Comet Thatcher. Thus, we are presented the Lyrid Meteor Shower. The peak of Lyrid Meteor Shower is predicted to be 10-20 meteors per hour. Howerver, the number could increase by five- to ten-fold as the Comet Thatcher’s tail has never been mapped in detail. Therefore, there lies a possibility that an outburst will happen. This has happened in 1982 when observers counted 90 lyrids per hour.
When to watch? As usual, the best time to watch is before the dawn or sunrise at around 4am to 5am. Good luck!
Comet Lulin is approaching us! It’s approaching us! I’ve never been such excited blogging here!
On 24 Feb 2009, Comet Lulin is going to pass the Earth by just 60.8 million km. Could you imagine that? At apogee (farthest), the Moon is 0.4 million km from us. Check out the sky map below to look out the comet!
Click to enlargeMany have already been out at the backyard busy imaging the great comet. The gallery at SpaceWeather.com is growing faster and faster when the day comes close to 24 Feb. Comet Lulin is a green tinted comet. You will see it as a greenish patch on the southern sky. The telescope will show you even more. From some degree, the comet even looks like a sword with its tail and anti-tail.
What if you’re going to miss the show due to the weather? No worry, Coca-Cola Space Science Center is going to broadcast the view through their 16″ Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. It starts at 1530 GMT on 23rd Feb 2009 until 1000 GMT on 24th Feb.
Comet Lulin is a great discovery with the collaboration of Chinese and Taiwanese. More story later, the comet is drawing my attention. 
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wish everybody has a wonderful 2008. At least, there are few great astronomical events waiting for us. At least, January is favoured with 3 fantastic events.
Continue reading ‘Happy New Year 2008 – Amazing Events Are Waiting For Us’
Comet tail disconnected from 17/Holmes nucleus [by Thorsten Boeckel]
Comet 17P/Holmes gives us surprise again. The comet’s tail disconnected from the nucleus. It’s believed to be caused by gusts the solar wind which trigger magnetic storms around the comet. This phenomena is not rare, it happened on Comet Encke earlier this year.
Amateur astronomers are monitoring this comet each night. What about you? Since my last observation, the sky has been cloudy until now.
Below is the direct quote from SpaceWeather.com regarding the satellite of Holmes.
Continue reading ‘Comet 17P/Holmes: Tail Disconnected’
It seems like I haven’t found the best setting to image 17P/Holmes. I just got a very noisy (offset too high) image with no detail. Time to go to CloudyNights.com to ask the community why.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the comet last night. Although the clouds are still there, I could still easily spot it by its “nebulosity”. I found that the telescopic view (8″ LX90 2000mm) was more spectacular than the the binocular (Meade 9×63mm). If you had watched Armageddon, you would quickly recognize the comet as the asteroid in the movie. It looks so threatening to us but it’s not going to collide with us. So, NASA doesn’t have to send Bruce Willis to drill a hole there.
All right, good weather is gone again. Let’s hope the sky will clear soon.
WOOOooooHoooOO! It’s so wonderful that a heavy downpour happened in the evening and most of the clouds are gone now. What’s the “star” tonight? Well, Comet 17P/Holmes is the “star” for the whole week and the next whole week. I’m watching it now. Sure, my laptop and Meade LPI is going to record it down and show it to my fellow friends. They are just too busy with the upcoming SPM exam (the O’ level exam).
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