David Levy's Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets

by David H. Levy

• ISBN13: 9780521826563
• ISBN10: 052182656X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

David Levy has held a lifelong passion for comets, and is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. In this book he describes the observing techniques that have been developed over the years--from visual observations and searching, to photography, through to electronic charge-coupled devices (CCDs). He combines the history of comet hunting with the latest techniques, showing how our understanding of comets has evolved over time. This practical handbook is suitable for amateur astronomers, from those who are casually interested in comets and how to observe them, to those who want to begin and expand an observing program of their own. Drawing widely from his own extensive experience, Levy describes how enthusiastic amateurs can observe comets and try to make new discoveries themselves. David H. Levy is one of the word's foremost amateur astronomers. He has discovered seventeen comets, seven using a telescope in his own backyard, and had a minor planet, Asteroid 3673 Levy named in his honor. He is best known as the co-discoverer of the famous 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet. Levy is frequently interviewed in the media and succeeded Carl Sagan as science columnist for Parade magazine. He has written and contributed to a number of books, most recently David Levy's Guide to the Night Sky (Cambridge, 2001).

Author Biography

David Levy has discovered 21 comets, eight of them using his own backyard telescopes. In collaboration with Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker, he discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994, producing one of the most spectacular explosions ever witnessed in the solar system. He is a contributing editor for Sky and Telescope magazine, Science Editor for Parade magazine, and is the author or editor of twenty-nine books. He won an Emmy in 1998 as part of the writing team for the Discovery Channel documentary, 'Three Minutes to Impact.' He and his wife Wendee are currently involved with the Shoemaker-Levy Double Cometograph comet search program, based at the Jarnac Observatory in Arizona

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
Part I Why observe comets?
1 Of history, superstition, magic, and science	9	(8)
2 Comet science progresses	17	(8)
Part II Discovering comets
3 Comet searching begins	25	(10)
4 Tails and trails	35	(8)
5 Comet searching in the twentieth century	43	(8)
6 How I search for comets	51	(10)
7 Searching for comets photographically	61	(10)
8 Searching for comets with CCDs	71	(6)
9 Comet hunting on paper	77	(4)
10 Hunting for sungrazers over the Internet	81	(6)
11 What to do when you think you have found a comet	87	(8)
Part III A new way of looking at comets
12 When comets hit planets	95	(10)
13 The future of visual comet hunting	105	(6)
Part IV How to observe comets
14 An introduction to comet origins and characteristics	111	(8)
15 Visual observing of comets	119	(12)
16 Estimating the magnitude of a comet	131	(8)
17 Taking a picture of a comet	139	(6)
18 Measuring where a comet is in the sky	145	(8)
Part V Closing notes
19 My passion for comets	153	(6)
Appendix	159	(14)
Index	173