OK I recall as a kid waiting up for Kohoteck(I know that is spelled wrong) comet. The hype was unbelievable. Of course it came to naught. First question is why did it fail to live up to expectations? Also, I was alive for Halley’s comet. But I never saw it either. Why? It was supposed to have been a sight earlier in the century. What is up with these comets?
I know this sounds stupid but I am serious. Also I have 20/20 vision. Yes I’ve had it checked.
The brightness of comets is generally unpredictable and Kohoutek apparently stayed on the dim side as far as comets go.
http://www.letsfindout.com/subjects/space/kohoutek.html
Back off, man. I’m a scientist.
That last comet (Hale-Bopp?) kicked ass.
It was very bright and looked like an airplane coming in for landing, its forward lights projecting a bright, forked cone. I saw it many nights in a row without any difficulty whatsoever.
yeah hale-bopp (sp?) was very good! I also saw Haleys but it required binoculars at a minimum. At the turn of the century it passed much closer, I think I have heard that it stretched from horizon to horizon. However the most exciting thing I have EVER seen astronomicly was the effects of Shumaker-levi 9 smacking into jupiter. I had been looking at jupiter for years and to see something that had such permanence in my mind scarred and changed. And I could SEE it! wow.
Comets have supposedly heralded kings,wars,upheavels,etc. I hear tell there was a comet Cece around 1946,when our Mr. Adams was born!
Markxxx: OK I recall as a kid waiting up for Kohoteck(I know that is spelled wrong) comet. The hype was unbelievable. Of course it came to naught. First question is why did it fail to live up to expectations? Also, I was alive for Halley’s comet. But I never saw it either. Why? It was supposed to have been a sight earlier in the century. What is up with these comets?
Many things contribute to the viewing of a comet:[ul][li]Comets’ orbits are greatly influenced by the planets. Halley’s orbital period varies 1%-2% each pass because some planet speeds it up or slows it down.[/li][li]The synchronization of Earth’s orbit with a comet is important. If we’re on the opposite side of the Sun during a comets inbound or outbound pass, we won’t see it.[/li][li]Small comets’ tails are smaller.[/ul][/li]For Halley’s 1910 pass, the Earth actually passed through the tail (millions of miles long), generating lots of “comet gas” scares. In 1986, it was about 1/4 of Earth’s orbit away from us when it passed with 1 AU. Then outbound, it was 1/4 on the other side, as the Earth had moved quite a bit too.
I drove 30 miles into the wilderness in '86 to see Halley’s at 3-4 am. It was a smudge in the SE sky, pointing towards where the Sun would rise. Very disappointing. And I’ll be 96-98 years old the next time it passed by. shrug
But there are always new comets arriving. Some comets’ perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) is only around Jupiter’s (or Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) orbit. But if the timing’s right, the planet will be nearby and tug comets into different, short-term orbits and send them into the inner solar system.
A brief hijack–for North American SDMBers, tonight (11/17-18) is when you should, with clear skies, be able to view the Leonid meteor shower. It holds the possibility of being a good one this year. The radiant point for the meteors is the constellation Leo, which can be seen in the north-northeast after midnight.
“Come on, Phonics Monkey–drum!”
PLD - indeed! Got this from the “Jack Horkheimer - Star Gazer” site:
{url}http://www.bisque.com/thesky/brian/19991115.htm
Arg - blew it! Start again.
http://www.bisque.com/thesky/brian/19991115.htm
pl,yep,I’ll be looking if I’m up.Too many lights,though. Oh,I LOVE Jack Horkheimer! He is so out there! 
Uh… not sure where Phil is, but those of you in Chicago should look for the Leonids near the constellation Leo, in the east-southeastern sky
I plan on checking on it on my way to and from the barn tonight and tomm. morning. Hopefully the last of these clouds will have moved out by then.
I’m unable to get out of L.A. to see the meteor storm, 
(I can see only the brightest stars and planets here) but I did see those remarkable videos of the storm on TV last night and this morning.
(Warren James, a real, live, gen-u-ine rocket scientist, who is host of a radio show, Hour 25, devoted to science fiction, fact and fantasy, alerted his listeners to the event and he called it a meteor storm, to distinguish it from lesser events. If any of you live in L.A., it’s on KPFK 90.7 FM at 11:00 PM, Friday nights.)
I didn’t know they were going to be that big!! And bright!! Supposedly, this is the best viewing we’ll have for 33 years.
And did you hear about the folks who saw the meteorites coming in and reported them as UFOs? I suppose you could call them Unidentified Falling Objects. 'Cept they remained unidentified for about two seconds. 
And the reason this info belongs in a thread about comets is because these meteors follow the orbit of a comet. (Don’t remember its name, though.) All a comet is is an object made of ice, gas, rocks and some organic compounds. When it gets close to the Sun, the ice vaporizes and the solar wind pushes the gas and ice away from the solid portion. (The solar wind is a stream of ionized matter from the Sun. It’s not like Earthly wind.) Since the solar wind causes the tail, the tail always points away from the Sun. This gas is mostly white in color, which is why it’s so visible.
Fighting my own ignorance since 1957.
*jab1: And the reason this info belongs in a thread about comets is because these meteors follow the orbit of a comet. (Don’t remember its name, though.) *
Comet Tempel-Tuttle is the source of the debris that creates the Leonid Meteor Shower.
I’m unable to get out of L.A. to see the meteor storm, (I can see only the brightest stars and planets here) but I did see those remarkable videos of the storm on TV last night and this morning.
(Warren James, a real, live, gen-u-ine rocket scientist, who is host of a radio show, Hour 25, devoted to science fiction, fact and fantasy, alerted his listeners to the event and he called it a meteor storm, to distinguish it from lesser events. If any of you live in L.A., it’s on KPFK 90.7 FM at 11:00 PM, Friday nights.)
I didn’t know they were going to be that big!! And bright!! Supposedly, this is the best viewing we’ll have for 33 years.
And did you hear about the folks who saw the meteorites coming in and reported them as UFOs? I suppose you could call them Unidentified Falling Objects. 'Cept they remained unidentified for about two seconds.
And the reason this info belongs in a thread about comets is because these meteors follow the orbit of a comet. (Don’t remember its name, though.) All a comet is is an object made of ice, gas, rocks and some organic compounds. When it gets close to the Sun, the ice vaporizes and the solar wind pushes the gas and ice away from the solid portion. (The solar wind is a stream of ionized matter from the Sun. It’s not like Earthly wind.) Since the solar wind causes the tail, the tail always points away from the Sun. This gas is mostly white in color, which is why it’s so visible.
Fighting my own ignorance since 1957.
Was anyone else fortunate enough to see the fireball that passed over central Indiana last night @7:00 p.m.? I was driving home and at first I thought it was a low-flying airplane. As it passed directly overhead I could tell what it was. At the front it had a blue-white glow and trailed with an orangeish tail. Beautiful! I must have watched it for almost twenty seconds before it passed below the treeline. Towards the end it started breaking up and you could see glowing pieces falling towards the ground.
Apparently a lot of other people saw it, too. It was one of the lead stories on the Indianapolis news programs last night. Maybe I’ll stay up for the Leonid showers tonight…
There is an organization on the web that takes information on individual fireballs. Saw one myself back in January, they are damn impressive. Unfortunately I only saw it for about 5 seconds and I was in my truck at the time, but when it lights up the surrounding landscape… dang impressive.
Foiled! Skies were overcast here last night. We hopped in the trusty Batmobile and headed for the countryside (the band of clouds above us looked pretty narrow on the weather channel) but no luck.
Anyone have a better view?
Popped out last night around 7:30 and the moon was pretty bright so I figured I’d just wait 'till this morning. 3:00 this morning and cloudy, bummer.