Comets :: Essays Papers

CometsWhat is Cometography? Cometography is a four-volume project I puddle been working on since the mid-1970s. Jump-started by comet Koh come inek of 1973-1974, I began researching comets and immediately found myself becoming more than and more intrigued by them. It was fascinating to read about comets that unexpectedly split, brightened, or faded. There were also interesting stories concerning the discovery circumstances of some comets, as easy as tales about how comets affected cultures. As I continued reading material I found that, back in 1967, the International Astronomical Union suggested that an with-it descriptive catalog of comets or cometography was needed. A committee was formed, exclusively in 1970 it reported, according to the words of Brian Marsden, that it would be very nice to digest a cometography, but that the effort required to produce such a catalog was great than the members of the committee could devote to it. Thus began my inspiration to re search and write Cometography, a preparedness of books devoted to adequately presenting the details of every comet seen in recorded history. The destruction complete work of this type was written by Alexander Guy Pingre. His twain volumes, called Cometographie, were published in 1783 and 1784, but are outright greatly out of date. Not only do they obviously lack the comets seen between 1784 and the present, but often(prenominal) of the original source material has been retranslated over the years, so that Pingres work is now inaccurate in places. Since the time of Pingre, two other books have been published tangible Characteristics of Comets, by S. K. Vsekhsvyatskii in 1958, and Comets A Descriptive Catalog, by myself in 1984. both of these books brought the 19th and 20th century comets to readers, but in a manner much more highly condensed than that of Pingre. They also only included those comets for which orbits had been computed. The vast grammatical constituent of Pi ngres work included comets for which orbits could not be determined, some of which have since been identified as previous, though poorly detect, appearances of Halleys comet, periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, and periodic comet dArrest. Cometography brings back the lesser observed comets, with the intention of providing all necessary details that might help future astronomers effectuate new comet identity links. To aid in the accuracy of Cometography I have tried to avoid Pingres books and the book of Vsekhsvyatskii.Comets Essays PapersCometsWhat is Cometography? Cometography is a four-volume project I have been working on since the mid-1970s. Jump-started by comet Kohoutek of 1973-1974, I began researching comets and immediately found myself becoming more and more intrigued by them. It was fascinating to read about comets that unexpectedly split, brightened, or faded. There were also interesting stories concerning the discovery circumstances of some comets, as well as tales about how comets affected cultures. As I continued reading I found that, back in 1967, the International Astronomical Union suggested that an up-to-date descriptive catalog of comets or cometography was needed. A committee was formed, but in 1970 it reported, according to the words of Brian Marsden, that it would be very nice to have a cometography, but that the effort required to produce such a catalog was greater than the members of the committee could devote to it. Thus began my inspiration to research and write Cometography, a set of books devoted to adequately presenting the details of every comet seen in recorded history. The last complete work of this type was written by Alexander Guy Pingre. His two volumes, called Cometographie, were published in 1783 and 1784, but are now greatly out of date. Not only do they obviously lack the comets seen between 1784 and the present, but much of the original source material has been retranslated over the years, so that Pin gres work is now inaccurate in places. Since the time of Pingre, two other books have been published Physical Characteristics of Comets, by S. K. Vsekhsvyatskii in 1958, and Comets A Descriptive Catalog, by myself in 1984. Both of these books brought the 19th and 20th century comets to readers, but in a manner much more highly condensed than that of Pingre. They also only included those comets for which orbits had been computed. The vast portion of Pingres work included comets for which orbits could not be determined, some of which have since been identified as previous, though poorly observed, appearances of Halleys comet, periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, and periodic comet dArrest. Cometography brings back the lesser observed comets, with the intention of providing all necessary details that might help future astronomers establish new comet identity links. To aid in the accuracy of Cometography I have tried to avoid Pingres books and the book of Vsekhsvyatskii.