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Look! Up in the Sky!

liquorbarn — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:35:18 +0000

…the Great Comet of 1861!

It was discovered today in…anybody? …ANYBODY? …1861, by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia. Mr. Tebbutt just happened to glance up and there it was.

During my senior year in high school I drove a Not-So-Great Comet of 1962. It was a Mercury and a real babe dispersant. Sigh…

Hot baseball news!

Maybe I’m just pumped up by all the sunshine the last two days combined with the Cincinnati Reds’ dismantling of the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.

- Today in 1952, minor-league pitcher for Bristol, Ron Necciai struck out 27 batters in nine innings. I think I have his baseball card around here somewhere.

- DeWolf Hooper recited “Casey at the Bat” for the first time today in 1888. “It looked extremely rocky for the Mudville nine that day…”

- I don’t know if they were playing baseball in Finland in 1848, but if they were they would have begun by singing their national anthem; “Maamme”. It was sung for the first time today in 1848.

So much became instantly possible…

…today in 1958 when the trademark “Velcro” was registered…and it sounded great!

Two of our birthdays today are wonderful singers.

- The Queen of Motown, Mary Wells was born today in 1943. Sing! “Nuthin’ you can do cause I’m stuck like glue to…”

- It’s also the birth date of Stevie Wonder in 1950. Talk about “wonder”-ful!

The other birthday…not so much.

- But he is a very funny guy. Stephen Colbert was born today in 1964. Practice “truthiness” today!

Drink 4cast 4 2day

I can’t get the Great and Not-So-Great Comets out of my head. Let’s have a;

Comet Cocktail

1 ½ oz. Cognac

1 ½ tsp. Cointreau

1 ½ tsp. Drambuie

1 oz. Grapefruit Juice

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake ingredients well with ice.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Sing! “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!”

Cheers!

Roger

8/13/2013.

Star Light, Star Bright

patriciahysell — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:40 +0000

Drawing of the Great Comet of 1861

May 13, 1861: A great comet is discovered by a then-amateur astronomer in New South Wales, Australia. John Tebbutt was the grandson of one of the early free settlers of Australia. He received an extensive education, all in religious schools. One of John’s early teachers, Mr. Edward Quaife, introduced the boy to the wonders found in the night sky. When John turned 19, he began a more earnest study of the heavens using only a marine telescope and a sextant. Nine years later, he first found the Great Comet of 1861, one of the most brilliant comets known.

Comets are small bodies orbiting the sun in an elliptical pattern. As they near the sun, a coma or atmosphere called a tail, becomes visible. The tail is the result of solar radiation on the comet’s nucleus. The nucleus is made of ice, dust, and small rocks. They are quite small, measuring from 30 feet to 25+ miles in diameter. Aristotle called them komētēs meaning “stars with hair.” There were 3,535 reported comets as of June 2008 with more being discovered all the time. The number of naked-eye comets averages one per year.

To be considered as Great, a comet must be visible to many people when simply looking up into the sky. This is the result of several factors. The size and material of the nucleus are important. The more retained volatile material left, the more spectacular the tail as the comet nears the sun. Another factor is how near the sun the comet approaches. As a comet’s distance from the sun is halved, it becomes 8 times as bright. A final factor is how near the comet is to Earth during its perihelion (nearest to sun) phase.

The Great Comet of 1861 has the official designation of C/1861 J1 or 1861 II. It was visible to the naked eye for three months and was one of 8 Great Comets in the 19th century. The comet passed so close to Earth, the planet was inside the tail for two days. Tebbutt not only saw it first, but also correctly calculated its orbit. The comet orbits the sun every 408 years. It should reach its aphelion, the farthest point from the sun, in 2063. The next time it comes back this way will be in the 23rd century.

“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.” – Plato

“If you wish to study what the solar system is made of you study comets.” – Donald Yeomans

“The most significant finding is the nature of the surface of the comet. We now know that it isn’t covered in a hard crust. It’s a fine-grained, loosely glued layer of organic powder and ice. You couldn’t make a snowball on Tempel 1.” – Peter Schultz

“We have successfully collected samples from the comet and we’re bringing them home for analysis in laboratories all over the world.” – Don Brownlee

This article first appeared at Examiner.com in 2010. Editor’s update: John Tebbutt was born in 1834. His father was a store keeper who retired from that profession around 1843. He purchased land at the end of town (Windsor) and built a house there. This is where John began observing the sky when he was 19. After discovering the Great Comet of 1861, he was able to purchase a 3.25 inch refracting telescope and continued his watchfulness. He was offered a government position but turned it down. By 1864, he built his own observatory near his father’s house and with his new telescope as well as two smaller ones, watched for meteors. He published his results for the years 1863-66 in 1868. He continued to publish his observations for the next thirty years. He upgraded his telescopes when he could. Before he died in 1916, he published Astronomical Memoirs which covered his 54 years of work.

Also on this day Knork? Spork? – In 1637 Cardinal Richelieu changes table settings.
Red Fort - In 1648, construction on the Red Fort was completed.
RFC – In 1912, the Royal Flying Corps was established in Britain.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's...

liquorbarn — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:56:05 +0000