This WWW page is designed to provide information on the newly-discovered, and very bright, Comet Hyakutake to the students, parents, and teachers of Fort Garrison Elementary School .
Over the next month we're going to be treated to an astronomical feast!
Comet Hyakutake is expected to become the brightest comet in at least 20 years.
During the last week of March, you should be able to see this comet for
yourself as it passes near the Big Dipper. The comet should remain
bright through at least mid-April. The best way to view the comet
will be with binoculars. Even if you don't have binoculars, you should
still be able to see the comet if the sky is clear.
Comet Hyakutake is now EASY to see, even from Baltimore, as long as
the sky is clear.
By the way, that bright "star" in the western sky just after sunset is
NOT a star; it's the planet VENUS. During early April the comet can
be found in the part of the sky between Venus and the star Capella,
which is the brightest star to the right of Venus in the northwest
part of the sky. The comet is now significantly to the left of the
North Star, Polaris.
If you go out to look for the comet, make sure that you:
You might find it interesting to keep track of the comet's position from
night-to-night. You'll see a dramatic difference over just a few days.
Have fun!
On Wednesday night (April 3rd) there will be a total lunar eclipse.
The Earth's shadow will pass across the full moon making it seem to
disappear! You can see the comet and the lunar eclipse on the same
night.
There is a nice article on the eclipse on page 1B of Sunday's (3/31/96)
Baltimore Sun. When the moon rises at ~6:30 pm it will already be
in eclipse. It should look pretty earie as it will be much, much fainter
than the normal full moon and will probably have a dark reddish color.
The moon will start emerging from the Earth's shadow at about 7:53 pm
and should be completely out by about 9 pm. Take a break from your
Passover Seder to check it out!
Look here for a flyer that was distributed
by the school on March 12th.
PARENTS: Use this opportunity to do some hands-on
astronomy with your children and spark their interest in science.
But before we get into too many details, let's start with a little background
information.
The comet was discovered on January 30th of this year by Yuji Hyakutake
(pronounced "hyah-koo-tah-kay", with equal emphasis on all four
syllables), who is an amateur astronomer from southern Japan. Here is
Yuji's picture next to the giant
pair of binoculars with which he made his discovery. (Photograph
© 1996 Tenmon Guide, by Akira Otawara)
So what is a comet? A COMET is a giant, dirty snowball! It has a
NUCLEUS, a COMA, and two kinds of TAILS. If you want to learn more
about comets, check out our
comet facts page .
The last really bright comet was Comet West, which appeared in 1976.
This comet was a spectacular sight to behold, but could only be seen
just before sunrise, which means that many people (including me!)
were too lazy to get up and see it. Here's one
pretty picture of Comet West , and
here's another
showing its wonderfully long and bright tail. Let's hope that
Comet Hyakutake gets this good and that we don't miss it!
The picture at the top of this WWW page is of Comet Kohoutek and was
taken in 1974. Many people were disappointed because Kohoutek did not
get as bright as astronomers predicted. It seems unlikely that
Hyakutake will fizzle out like Kohoutek did, but you should realize
that Hyakutake will not be nearly as bright as the moon, nor as bright
as fireworks on the 4th of July!
Here is a picture of Comet Hyakutake (167K)
taken at the Picos dos Dias Observatory in Brazil by Rodrigo Campos
on February 21st. If you want to see a smaller version (only 45.5K)
click here .
Both of these images are displayed in
false color ;
the comet does not really look like this.
You can use this simple finder chart
of the northern sky to locate the comet. Notice that on
March 27th the comet passes very close to the North Star,
Polaris .
Before March 23rd, the comet can only be observed after about 10 pm.
After March 25th the comet should be visible shortly after sunset and
on into the evening. The comet is easier to observe after the sun has
gone down and the sky is nice and dark.
Eric Frappa from the Saint-Etienne Planetarium in France generated a
neat figure showing the
comet's orbital plane
and its location relative to the Sun and Earth during late March
through mid-April.
The folks at Sky and Telescope magazine have produced a couple of very
nice, and more sophisticated, Hyakutake finder charts. One is for
late March
and one is for
April .
Last night (Saturday, 3/30) we had a comet viewing session at the
Fort Garrison School baseball field. Fortunately, the weather
cooperated and we were able to see the comet. The only problem
was that the many lights around the school and the nearly-full
moon made the sky pretty bright, so that the comet looked like
little more than a smudge. If you can get to a darker place (at least
5 miles or so outside the beltway), you should be able to see
the comet's tail.
If you haven't seen the comet yet, you still have a chance! I expect
the comet to remain visible shortly after sunset in the northwest sky
for at least the next couple of weeks. The comet should be between
Venus (that really bright "star" that you see in the west at sunset)
and the very bright star (called Capella) to the right of Venus.
You might have some difficulty seeing the comet until it gets a little
later into twilight (when the sky starts to darken a bit).
The comet makes it closest approach to the Sun on May 1st and then
starts its long journey back out to deep space, not to be seen again
for about 10,000 years! Now don't you feel lucky to have seen it?
Comments on this WWW page can be sent to Hal Weaver via e-mail at
weaver@ari.net .
Hal is a professional Planetary Astronomer and the father of Alex
Weaver, who is a first grader in Mrs. Steinman's class at Fort Garrison.
Visitors, since 10 March 1996:
The
JPL Hyakutake homepage
is maintained by Ron Baalke of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and is probably the most comprehensive Hyakutake WWW site in the world.
From this site you can find some of the latest images of the comet,
finder charts, and links to just about every other important Hyakutake
WWW site. I highly recommend checking it out.
The NASA Ames Research Center in northern California is putting on a
Night of the Comet
virtual reality star party, starting on March 15th. Before March 15th
you can go to a
temporary site
to get further information. The primary purpose of this effort is
EDUCATION and PUBLIC OUTREACH, so the materials should be accessible
to everyone. Teachers might want to try out
The Internet in the Classroom ,
which is NASA's ongoing project to provide support and services for
schools, and students in kindergarten through high school.
You might want to check out
Sky and Telescope Magazine's
online comet page for observing tips, nice finder charts (which I've
already included above), and up-to-date information on
Comet Hyakutake observations from around the world.
Villanova University
in Philadelphia has a very nice Comet Hyakutake WWW page.
You can find interesting drawing of the comet's path on the sky, information
on local astronomy clubs and observing facilities, and links
to weather maps, among other things.
Some students in the ASTRO-422 class at the University of
Washington in Seattle have put together a great Hyakutake WWW page
that's very informative without being too technical.
Click here if you want to check it out.
