Jedolby

  Last night, while imaging my target galaxies at 3 hours R.A., there was a "new star" in galaxy IC 342. The star looked a little funny, though. It was large and fuzzy, unlike the appearance of a supernova or asteroid. Did I just discover a comet? Yes, and no. Cartes du Ciel, the planetarium software I use, identified the interloper as Comet C/2022 E2 ATLAS. The date within the name indicates that this comet was discovered two years ago. You might wonder why I am just now getting around to seeing it. Well, comets are movers. No, they don't go zipping across the sky like meteors. They move more slowly, like the planets and asteroids do. If you follow them for an hour, or so, you'll detect their motion against the background stars. If you catch them inbound but way out beyond Jupiter's orbit, you can continue following them for months. And when a comet reaches the inner solar system, the heat of the sun will cause its surface to melt a little and allow gas and dust...

Time is very precious to backyard telescope enthusiasts. Before they shell out their clams on expensive astro-gear, they will likely try to answer one very important question: "How often will I get to use it?" What they're mostly wondering about is how often the weather will cooperate. But other things can interfere with stargazing, like work schedules, family commitments, and health issues, to name a few.  It's difficult to justify spending a lot of money on something that you don't have the time to use. And when you stop and think about it, astronomy, unlike most other hobbies, has some very undesirable aspects that can be motivation killers.  You have to stay up late, for starters. Some people just get tired when they stay up late. But for others, staying up late can be downright uncomfortable. They get headaches and nausea when they stay up late. Another problem with astronomy is that you have to be outdoors, and outdoors at night means that it's probably ...