Month: June 2013

A Comet a Week

As a lead up to the July 30th release of THE NIGHT OF THE COMET, I’m going to feature a famous comet a week on this blog.

Blatant self-promotion, yes, but you might enjoy it. Collect all the comets and you’ll win . . . I don’t know. Something special.

This week’s comet, one of history’s most famous: Constantine’s Comet.

Constantine's Comet

You might be familiar with the legend: Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor and founder of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), converted to Christianity in the 4th century when he had a vision of a cross burning in the sky above a battlefield:

“He saw with his own eyes in the heavens a trophy of the cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message, In Hoc Signo Vinces or ‘with this sign, you will conquer.’”

He commanded his soldiers to make the mark the cross on their shields, and thus he won the battle.

Some maintain that the light in the sky Constantine saw was a comet, “Constantine’s Comet.”

Comet ISON Update

Here’s an artist’s rendition of how Comet ISON, the “Comet of the Century,” might look in December this year, from earthsky.org:

ISON18thDec5pm

And here’s a recent piece in Space.com that recalls another famous Comet of the Century:

“Remember Kohoutek?

“If you’re of a certain age, this story might have a familiar ring. Indeed, exactly 40 years ago, a comet by the name of Kohoutek was also discovered at a tremendously large distance from the sun, en route to a close solar encounter in late December 1973.

“Like ISON, Kohoutek was expected to dazzle — perhaps more than 100 times brighter than Venus. It, too, was dubbed “the comet of the century,” but in the end, Kohoutek turned out to be much dimmer and put on a rather disappointing show.”