A Great Big Space Rock Is Coming
January 25th, 2008 - 11:56 am
It’s not going to hit us though, so relax. God wouldn’t dare do anything to disturb the electrical grid feeding Al Gore’s megamansion. But still I’d like to watch the thing whiz by during the night of January 29th. Thing is, not one of the articles I’ve found on the Net tells me which way to look.
OK, look up. I got that part. Then what? This article provides a map with lots of microscopic Latin words blurred on it, absolutely no help to me. Anyone know which way to look?
I’d like to see that thing, too. I bet there’s an astronomy club in your area with some answers. Heck, I bet there’s one in mine.
Looks like just about due North from my place in Aurora. go to http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
Put in your lat.& long (usually easy from an e-map) and get a pic of the night sky from that spot. The posted pic shows it at it’s brightest just below Ursa Minor which you can pick out of your custom sky map.
Looks like it’s passing right through the constellation Perseus: http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/Holmes_findr_640px.jpg
Now all you have to do is figure out where Perseus is!
TO: Edward Christie, et al.
RE: Those Big Rocks
Actually, it has always been a matter of ‘when’ not of ‘if’. If it’s this one or another, it still always boils down to a matter of time.
It could be tomorrow. Probably not. But it could be.
It’s not the we know about that worry me. I think that we COULD deal with them. It’s the ones we do know about that give me pause for concern. Especially those cosmic spit-balls we commonly call comets. They are not known as stars of ill omen for no reason….
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Big Rock cometh. -- Bumper Sticker]
The Little Dipper! Hey thanks Mark, I know where to find that.
Somewhere in my DVD collection is an unviewed copy of an astronomy course (Biblical Astronomy actually) and one of my goals now that I’m retired is to watch the course and study the stars some. At least enough to know the basics.
TO: Stephen Green, et al.
RE: That Rock’s Diameter
The linked-to article says it is 150-160 metere.
Other sources, i.e., SpaceWeather, reports 400 meters.
Whatever it is, if it did impact, it would make a shambles of life on Earth, one way or another.
The item hypothesized as causing the Biblical Flood is estimated at being 200 meters in diameter.
See….
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetearth/comet_bronzeage_011113-1.html
….for details.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Actually, unless you have large binos or a medium sized telescope you won’t see diddly. If you do have one of those, you will need a finder chart specifically generated for your location, because it is going to pass so close that your position on the Earth will cause it to appear in different parts of the sky for you versus someone in a different state or country.
Having said all that, since I am basically a real trooper, I will be happy to prepare a finder chart for you, if you give me your street address, or lat and long.
I assume those with posting rights here should have access to my email address, so go ahead and send me your address and I’ll keep it confidential and send you back the charts for some times when you will be able to see it. I’ll eliminate daytime, etc. and I may even convert the UTC time to local if you want.
Please put “ASTEROID” in caps in the subject, because your email will go to my junkmail, and that will make it easier for me to find it. Cheers.
Hey thanks sherlock, I appreciate the offer but I’m good to go, thanks to other readers and a friend here in Austin TX. Now all I have to do is stay awake long enough and hope for a cloudless night come Tuesday.