[meteorite-list] How To See Comet Ikeya-Zhang

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:32 2004
Message-ID: <200203250514.VAA21014_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/ep/pressrel/ikeya-zhang_rel.html

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Release No.: 02-09
For Immediate Release: March 22, 2002

See a Comet Tonight

Cambridge, MA - The brightest comet since 1997's Hale-Bopp is currently
gracing the western skies of North America. Comet Ikeya-Zhang (pronounced
"ee-KAY-uh JONG") was discovered on February 1st by two amateur astronomers
in Japan and China, respectively. Calculations of the comet's orbit by Brian
Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics show that it was
last seen in 1661. This makes Ikeya-Zhang the first long-period comet (a
comet with a period longer than 200 years) to be identified on its return to
the inner solar system.

No telescope is necessary to look at this beautiful visitor as it swings
around the Sun and heads back to deep space. The comet has brightened to
naked-eye visibility, but is easiest to see through binoculars. A casual
glance will show the bright, starlike nucleus surrounded by a fuzzy cloud of
dust and gas called the coma. The comet's tail streaks away from the Sun,
pointing nearly straight up from the horizon.

To find Comet Ikeya-Zhang, look in the western sky shortly after sunset. A
red point of light about 18 degrees up in the sky is the planet Mars. (An
outspread hand at arm's length covers about 15 degrees, so Mars is a bit
higher than one hand-span.) To the right of Mars are two bright stars in a
nearly vertical line. The comet is at the same height as Mars, to the right
of the two bright stars about as far again as the distance from Mars to the
stars.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA
scientists organized into seven research divisions study the origin,
evolution, and ultimate fate of the universe.

Note to editors: An image of Comet Ikeya-Zhang on the evening of Thursday,
March 22, 2002, taken by the MicroObservatory telescope in Cambridge, is
available online at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/comet_image.html. The
MicroObservatory project, created by the Science Education group at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, allows students and teachers
across the nation to use telescopes over the Internet to take pictures of
objects in the night sky.

For more information, contact:

David A. Aguilar, Public Affairs
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: 617-495-7462 Fax: 617-495-7468
daguilar_at_cfa.harvard.edu
Received on Mon 25 Mar 2002 12:14:54 AM PST