Blazing a Ghostly Trail ISON and Great Comets of the Past and Future /

• Main Author: Grego, Peter (Author)
• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014.
• Series: The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series,
• Subjects: Physics.; Observations, Astronomical.; Astronomy > Observations.; Astronomy.; Astronomy, Observations and Techniques.; Popular Science in Astronomy.

A special celestial event climaxes towards the end of 2013, the arrival, fresh from the Oort Cloud, of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). By all predictions, this comet was set to be one of the most dazzling comets seen in modern history.   Sky watchers will have already been primed for C/2012 (ISON) earlier i...

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Setting the scene for C/2012 S1 (ISON) and incoming comets
• What is a comet and where do they come from? (Primordial leftovers, Oort Cloud, etc)
• Portents of change and doom (historical perspectives on comets, myths and superstitions, end of world predictions, hyperbole)
• Great comets (including Halley’s Comet, Ikeya-Seki, IRAS-Araki-Alcock, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, McNaught, etc)
• Comets up close observations by space probes (VeGa, Giotto, ICE, Deep Impact, etc)
• C/2012 S1 and selected bright comets of the future (discovery, magnitude predictions, paths through Solar System).