Does anyone know what's up with this comet Ison thing?

It’s a comet that is traveling through our solar system and is on a path to slingshot around the sun (during which process much of it’s busk will melt, in fact it could melt entirely). If it doesn’t, it will be visible at early morning hours in December.

Nothing else.

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Dead in the water, so to speak. Premature ejaculation.

@marinelife Nope, the sun demolished it. It was only visible in the pre-dawn in November, and it wasn’t even that impressive. Comet Lovejoy was better. When Ison approach the Sun, the sun vaporized it. It’s a ghost of its former self.

By far the best image taken was this one. http://www.universetoday.com/106465/whoa-take-a-look-at-comet-ison-now/

Comet conspiracies !!! What will these pathetic nutjobs come up with next ???

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(religious_group)

Wow! Thanks for that y’all. I feel informed and chuckled a little too! Is there another thing or is that the only thing? I also heard about another planet with a strange orbit or something. Maybe it’s all the same thing? I don’t know. I’ve got to stop wandering around youtube…

If you want to wander around Youtube for astronomy topics, I suggest you start here
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCogrSQkBJn1KF0N9I4oM7eQ

Ooh ooh! @Rarebear – I got my little one his first telescope for Christmas. It’s a cheap little thing but I’m stoked to try to see anything with it. Hopefully the first of many and a long interest in astronomy.

@Seek_Kolinahr What did you get? My problem with cheap scopes is sometimes they’re so hard to use that they become ornaments. This is probably the best cheapest scope I’ve seen that has some quality. http://www.optcorp.com/celestron-firstscope-telescope-21024.html

Same company, different scope. It’s likely going to be more “toy” than anything, but supposedly it gets up to 100x. If I can get him to see a little of Jupiter and get through our homeschool unit on the Solar System before it’s reduced to bird watching, I’ll be happy. ^_^

@Seek_Kolinahr When I was a kid, I got a 60x hand-held, and one of my friends got a 6” reflector telescope. I was so jealous, but I loved to hang out at his place and gaze with amazement at the Moon, Saturn, etc.

@DWW25921 ISON says, “I came, I saw, but I was conquered.” Just a few remaining bits of debris ever emerged after its closes pass to the sun, where it was flying though 2,700 °C heat. It’s cooked.

Seek, which one?

I can’t remember, can’t find it on the store’s website, and it’s already wrapped.

Ugh. Alyson-fail.

Either way, it’s gotta be better than what Galileo had, right?

Here’s what his scope was able to do.

“Galileo’s best telescope magnified objects about 30 times. Because of flaws in its design, such as the shape of the lens and the narrow field of view, the images were blurry and distorted. Despite these flaws, the telescope was still good enough for Galileo to explore the sky. The Galilean telescope could view the phases of Venus, and was able to see craters on the Moon and four moons orbiting Jupiter.”

That rocks.

According to the National Geographic Kids books we’ve checked out of the library, at 100x we should be able to see Uranus and Neptune as small dots, and make out the rings of Saturn.

@Seek_Kolinahr He should see enough to get him hooked. If so, he’ll save up for a better telescope and start pestering you for trips far from any city lights and as high in elevation as possible to reduce atmospheric haze.

Right now, he has this book out, trying desperately to convince my husband that there are indeed thirteen planets and not nine.

Haha. Late night science parties.

Ok I give up. This question is now officially about telescopes. Do you folks think they have a good turn over rate at the flea market? I mean, I know someone who is selling one pretty cheap and was thinking about picking it up for resale. Let me know. I know nothing of brands or whatever.

@DWW25921 Sorry about the derail. It’s just such a disappointment that ISON did not survive it’s close encounter with our solar systems dynamic thermonuclear furnace. If it had emerged intact, it would have given us a spectacular light show in the December sky. It would have been bright enough to see in daylight.

@ETpro I’m ok with the derail as my initial question was answered quickly and I’m glad I could do my part in helping others sort out their telescope problems.

I have a telescope. I bought it at auction about 5 years ago. I excitedly told @Rarebear about it and asked if I’d gotten a good deal. He said “Well, that’s about what you would pay for a new one.” Sigh. If he’d known I was going to get a nasal basal in 5 years maybe he would have LIED to me to make me happy. But nooo.

I haven’t figured out how to use it. I want to hand it over to my grandson, Aden when he’s about 13 or so. He’s 8 now. He is an absolute astronomy NUT! He’s smart, too. He’ll figure it out.

I saw Hale-Bop in the sky before I ever heard about it on the news. Kind of weird to see something hanging in the sky that doesn’t belong there and not know what it is.

I got a picture of Haley’s comet when it came through in 86 or 87. Need to get that sucker scanned.

I got my first telescope when I was 12 or 13 taking an astronomy class, and still recall how amazed and excited I was when I saw rings around saturn! It couldn’t have been a very powerful scope but boy oh boy did it give me a view of the moon and planets such as I had seen only in drawings.

By the way @Seek_Kolinahr, how can we say how many planets there are when even astronomers don’t agree what a planet is?

If anybody wants to buy a telescope they should talk to me first.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room

Most recent determination is 8 classic planets and 5 official dwarf planets. There are a few more in consideration for upgrading to dwarf planet status.

In the 1800s there were believed to be 49 planets.

Science changes. That’s how it stays cool ^_^