[Friends_of_SSASTROS] 12/P Pons-Brooks Sighting Expedition

[Mike McCabe]

Members and Friends of the SSAStros,
We present for your consideration an outing where we will attempt to view the periodic comet 12/P Pons-Brooks, commencing tomorrow evening at the Granite Links golf club located at 100 Quarry Hills Drive, Quincy, MA. Setup will begin around 6pm. All are welcome to join us, with or without a telescope. It is recommended that if you own binoculars to bring them along.

The comet will be low in the western sky at the onset of darkness (about 20 degrees above the horizon). It has been steadily brightening in recent weeks and should be visible in binoculars. We will likely have a variety of telescopes on hand to compare views in.

Unlike the mainstream media, we will not imply that you will see anything resembling the image above, taken just a day ago by Peter Horalek of Slovakia. The comet will likely appear as a small fuzzy blob in our eyepieces, and sighting the tail is not very likely from our city venue. The galaxy M31, seen above the comet in Peter's image is another potential target for our scopes, but again, won't look like that.

Much of the satisfaction gleaned from the visual observation of deep-sky objects comes from understanding where the photons striking our eyes originated from. Comets are remnants from the origins of our solar system, and only become visible to us because as they near the Sun in their travels they heat up and start spewing gasses and dusts as their internal pressure increases. This heating and pressurization often results in the total destruction of the comet.
The light from distant galaxies has traveled vast distances to get to us. In the case of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, if you get to see that tomorrow night be sure to consider that the light hitting your eyes traveled for 2.5 million years just to get to you. Yes, a telescope really is a time machine. 
Looking forward to your company in Quincy tomorrow evening, 
Mike McCabe 
Yahoo Mail: Search, Organize, Conquer
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