Those big ones really do spoil one, don't they? A 3rd, 4th magnitude comet only a few degrees across? Yawn.... What are your favorites of the last 30 years, Patrick? I'd rank mine as West, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, in that order. Biggest disappointments were Halley and Kohoutek. Oh, Austin was a yawner too. People may not believe it, but you could read a newspaper by the light of comet West. Ziggy and Brent remember a couple even earlier...but then I don't QUITE qualify for the "senior" discount at the movies...not quite yet... ;)
From: Patrick Wiggins <paw@trilobyte.net> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:51:24 -0700 Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Comet Macholtz
Ah, memories of that magical night when the tail stretched almost all the way across the sky.
Sigh...
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo
My favorite comet was the first one I ever saw. But I don't remember the name. It was an evening comet in the late 1950s. West was nice. First comet I ever photographed. So many people didn't bother to get up early to see it because it came on the heels of Kohoutek which had disappointed so many. Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp. Truly great comets but what I remember most (a personal side note here) is that I got engaged under Hyakutake and reengaged a year later under Hale-Bopp. But most know where that led... We went 20 years without a great comet (1976 to 1996). I sure hope we don't have to wait that long again. Patrick Chuck Hards wrote:
Those big ones really do spoil one, don't they? A 3rd, 4th magnitude comet only a few degrees across? Yawn.... What are your favorites of the last 30 years, Patrick? I'd rank mine as West, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, in that order. Biggest disappointments were Halley and Kohoutek. Oh, Austin was a yawner too.
People may not believe it, but you could read a newspaper by the light of comet West.
Ziggy and Brent remember a couple even earlier...but then I don't QUITE qualify for the "senior" discount at the movies...not quite yet... ;)
Me and several divers were doing a series of night dives at Lake Tahoe. While floating on our backs under a star filled sky during a surface interval, Comet Hale-Bopp was up. It seemed to stretch clear across the Tahoe basin. I smoked back then and as luck would have it, I had a pack of cigarettes in a waterproof container tucked in my B.C. for just such an occasion. That was one of those instances when a person just had to have a cigarette after experiencing something like that. ;) There were other times, but being that this is a family channel, we won't get into that... Quoting Patrick Wiggins <paw@trilobyte.net>:
My favorite comet was the first one I ever saw. But I don't remember the name. It was an evening comet in the late 1950s.
West was nice. First comet I ever photographed. So many people didn't bother to get up early to see it because it came on the heels of Kohoutek which had disappointed so many.
Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp. Truly great comets but what I remember most (a personal side note here) is that I got engaged under Hyakutake and reengaged a year later under Hale-Bopp. But most know where that led...
We went 20 years without a great comet (1976 to 1996). I sure hope we don't have to wait that long again.
Patrick
Chuck Hards wrote:
Those big ones really do spoil one, don't they? A 3rd, 4th magnitude comet only a few degrees across? Yawn.... What are your favorites of the last 30 years, Patrick? I'd rank mine as West, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, in that order. Biggest disappointments were Halley and Kohoutek. Oh, Austin was a yawner too.
People may not believe it, but you could read a newspaper by the light of comet West.
Ziggy and Brent remember a couple even earlier...but then I don't QUITE qualify for the "senior" discount at the movies...not quite yet... ;)
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
So, what are the chances the Macholtz will be a great one? Thanks, Joe
For me, it's Ikea-Seki and Hale-Bopp. Ikea was a sun-grazer in 1965. I remember seeing the body of the comet near the horizon and the tail stretching halfway to the zenith. Wowzers!
Those big ones really do spoil one, don't they? A 3rd, 4th magnitude comet only a few degrees across? Yawn.... What are your favorites of the last 30 years, Patrick?
participants (5)
-
Chuck Hards -
diveboss＠xmission.com -
Joe Bauman -
Michael Carnes -
Patrick Wiggins