Comet Images - GEORGE BISHOP

Greatest Comets of the Past 500 Years

January 12, 2023December 27, 2013

Huffington Post has this handy recap of five of the Greatest Comets of the Past 500 Years. It’s missing some of my favorites: Donati’s Comet, the Great Comet of 1811 (featured in Tolsoy’s “War and Peace”), the phantasmagorical Great Comet of 1528, the Comet of the Black Death…

Still, there are some nice pictures. I think all of these get a mention in “The Night of the Comet.”

Greatest Comets Ever Seen In Past 500 Years
SPACE.com | By Joe Rao
Posted: 12/26/2013 9:18 am EST

When Comet ISON was discovered and a preliminary orbit for it was worked out, it was initially announced that it could be the “comet of the century.”

Of course, the 21st century is only 12 years old (from 2001) and ISON turned out to be a dud. But out there in the far recesses of space there is certainly some unknown comet worthy of such an honorific title that will ultimately put on a unique and memorable show sometime during this century.

There will always be bright and spectacular comets, but in each century there is always one that will stand above the others. Below I provide my own list of the five most spectacular comets that have appeared in each century starting from the 16th and running through the 20th century.

Take note that four of these five dazzlers appeared in the latter half of their century and that the average time between appearances amounts to 97 years. Considering that Comet Ikeya-Seki passed by in 1965, the next prospective “Comet of the Century” might not appear — according to our small sampling — until maybe 2029 at the earliest … and maybe not even until the next century (in 2103!).

Then again, stupendously bright comets are totally unpredictable and can suddenly appear at almost any time.

Greatest Comet of the 16th Century: The Great Comet of 1577

This comet passed to within 16.7 million miles (26.9 million kilometers) of the sun on Oct. 27, but was not sighted until five days later, when it was described in an account from Peru as an exceptionally brilliant object. Contemporary descriptions note that it was seen through the clouds like the moon.

The Great comet of 1577, seen over Prague on November 12. Engraving made by Jiri Daschitzky.

By Nov. 8, it was reported by Japanese observers as a “broom star,” appearing “as bright as the moon” with a white tail spanning over 60 degrees (your clenched fist held at arm’s length measures 10 degrees). The famous astronomer Tycho Brahe first saw the comet as a reflection in his garden fish pond on Nov. 13, and likened its brightness to Venus. The comet was still as bright as zero magnitude inDecember before it finally dropped below the limit of naked-eye visibility on Jan. 26, 1578. (Magnitude is a measure of a celestial object’s brightness, with smaller numbers corresponding to brighter objects.)

Greatest Comet of the 17th Century: The Great Comet of 1680

The great excitement that accompanied the first announcement of the discovery of Comet ISON was that initially its orbit appeared strikingly similar to this spectacular 17th century comet; it was hoped that perhaps ISON was either a return of this amazing object, or at the very least a large fragment. But later calculations showed this was not so.

The Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam. People in the drawing are using cross-staffs which were early devices for measuring angles and a predecessor of the sextant.

The German astronomer Gottfried Kirch became the first person to ever discover a comet with a telescope when he sighted this comet on Nov. 14, 1680, when it was at fourth magnitude. By Dec. 2, it already had a 15-degree tail and had reached second magnitude (as bright as Polaris, the North Star). On Dec. 18, it was at perihelion (the closest point to the sun in its orbit) coming to within 128,000 miles (206,000 km) of the sun’s surface.

At least one report (from Albany, NY) indicates that the comet was visible in the daytime. Several days later it could be seen in the evening twilight sky with a tail stretching straight up from a second-magnitude head from the southwest horizon for 70 to 90 degrees. By Jan. 10, 1681, the tail had shrunk to 55 degrees and by the Jan. 23 it measured “only” 30 degrees, with its head having faded to fourth magnitude. It remained visible to the naked eye until early February 1681.

Greatest Comet of the 18th Century: The Great Comet of 1744

First sighted on Nov. 29, 1743, as a dim fourth-magnitude object, this comet brightened rapidly as it approached the sun. Many textbooks often cite Philippe Loys de Cheseaux, of Lausanne, Switzerland, as the discoverer, although his first sighting did not come until two weeks later.

The Great Comet of 1744, or “Comet de Cheseaux-Klinkenberg”, at 4am on March 9, 1744, showing six tails rising above the horizon.

By mid-January 1744, the comet was described as first-magnitude with a 7-degree tail. By Feb. 1, it rivaled Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) and displayed a curved tail, 15 degrees in length. By Feb.18, the comet was equal to Venus in brightness and displayed two tails.

On Feb. 27, it peaked at magnitude -7 and was reported visible in the daytime, 12 degrees from the sun. Perihelion came on March 1, at a distance of 20.5 million miles (33 million km) from the sun. On March 6, the comet appeared in the morning sky, accompanied by six brilliant tails, making it resemble a Japanese hand fan.

Greatest Comet of the 19th Century: The Great September Comet of 1882

This comet is perhaps the brightest comet that has ever been seen and was a gigantic member of the Kreutz Sungrazing Group of Comets. First spotted as a bright zero-magnitude object by a group of Italian sailors in the Southern Hemisphere on Sept. 1, this comet brightened dramatically as it approached its rendezvous with the sun.

Photograph of the Great Comet of 1882, as seen from South Africa.

By Sept. 14, it became visible in broad daylight, and when it arrived at perihelion on Dec. 17, it passed at a distance of only 264,000 miles (425,000 km) from the sun’s surface. On that day, some observers described the comet’s silvery radiance as scarcely fainter than the limb of the Sun, suggesting a magnitude somewhere between -15 and -20 (the latter magnitude would register nearly 1,000 times brighter than the full moon!). The following day, observers in Cordoba, Argentina, described the comet as a “blazing star” near the sun.

The nucleus also broke into at least four separate parts. In the days and weeks that followed, the comet became visible in the morning sky as an immense object sporting a brilliant tail. Today, some comet historians consider it a “Super Comet,” far above the run of even great comets.

Greatest Comet of the 20th Century: Comet Ikeya-Seki, 1965

This was the brightest comet of the 20th century, and was found just over a month before perihelion in the morning sky, moving rapidly toward the Sun. Like the Great Comets of 1843 and 1882, Ikeya-Seki was a Kreutz Sungrazer and on Oct. 21, swept to within 744,000 miles (1.2 million km) of the center of the sun.

This picture was captured on October 30, 1965 showing the full extent of this great comet’s tail of some 30 degrees.

The comet was then visible as a brilliant object within a degree or two of the sun, and wherever the sky was clear, the comet could be seen by observers merely by blocking out the sun with their hands. From Japan, the homeland of the observers who discovered it, Ikeya-Seki was described as appearing “10 times brighter than the full moon,” corresponding to a magnitude of minus 15. Also at that time, the nucleus was observed to break into two or three pieces.

Thereafter, the comet moved away in full retreat from the sun, the head fading very rapidly, but its slender, twisted tail reaching out into space for up to 75 million miles (120 million km), and dominating the eastern morning sky right on through the month of November.

Greatest Comet of the 21st Century: TBD

ISON fizzled, so we continue to wait…

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer’s Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+.

Chinese Comets and the Record of the World’s Changes

January 12, 2023October 11, 2013

The ancient Chinese were the world’s first and best astronomers. Carl Sagan dates their astronomical record-keeping back to 1500 BC. Star catalogues listed hundreds of comets over hundreds of years, and included detailed information on dates, appearance, and location of comets.

The Chinese drew up the world’s first cometary atlas, too, the Mawangdui Silk, as it’s called, ca. 300 BC. Here’s a portion of it:

And here’s one of my favorite entries from the “Record of the World’s Changes,” by Li Ch’un, 602-667:

“When a comet appears in the Constellation Hydra, there is war and some conspire to overthrow the emperor. Fish and salt are expensive. The emperor dies. Rice also becomes expensive. There is no emperor in the country. The people hate life and don’t even want to speak of it.”

“The people hate life and don’t even want to speak of it.” Indeed.

Favorite Astronomy Poems No. 1: “Halley’s Comet,” by Stanley Kunitz

January 12, 2023September 15, 2013

I kept this poem taped to the wall above my desk while I was writing “The Night of the Comet.”

HALLEY’S COMET
by Stanley Kunitz
(1905-2006)

Miss Murphy in first grade 
wrote its name in chalk 
across the board and told us 
it was roaring down the stormtracks 
of the Milky Way at frightful speed 
and if it wandered off its course
 and smashed into the earth 
there’d be no school tomorrow. 
A red-bearded preacher from the hills 
with a wild look in his eyes 
stood in the public square 
at the playground’s edge 
proclaiming he was sent by God 
to save every one of us, 
even the little children. 
“Repent, ye sinners!” he shouted, 
waving his hand-lettered sign. 
At supper I felt sad to think 
that it was probably 
the last meal I’d share 
with my mother and my sisters; 
but I felt excited too 
and scarcely touched my plate. 
So mother scolded me 
and sent me early to my room. 
The whole family’s asleep 
except for me. They never heard me steal 
into the stairwell hall and climb 
the ladder to the fresh night air. 
Look for me, Father, on the roof 
of the red brick building 
at the foot of Green Street–
that’s where we live, you know, on the top floor. 
I’m the boy in the white flannel gown 
sprawled on this coarse gravel bed 
searching the starry sky, 
waiting for the world to end. 

Birmingham, Nazis, and Comets

January 12, 2023August 20, 2013

Birmingham, Nazis, and Comets: A Short Photo Essay

One free morning while I was in Birmingham, Ala., on my book tour for THE NIGHT OF THE COMET, I took a stroll out of my hotel to visit the Birmingham Museum of Art. (It’s an excellent museum, by the way, and well worth the visit if you’re ever in Birmingham.)

To get to the museum, I walked past the downtown Jefferson County Courthouse, and was struck by something I saw carved into the marble pedestals on either side of the rear entrance of the courthouse:

A closer look:

That’s right, those are swastikas, infamously associated with Nazis and Nazism since the National Socialist German Workers Party adopted the swastika as their official symbol in 1920. As in:

And:

But what were swastikas doing on the Birmingham courthouse? What could they signify here?

Historically, Alabama, like my own native Louisiana, has not exactly been known as a model of racial tolerance and diversity.

See, for example, Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Birmingham jail:

Or Alabama state troopers attacking civil-rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery march on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965:

Or Birmingham police fire-hosing black high schools students:

You get the idea.

Even today, Alabama harbors white supremacy groups–30 “active hate groups,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Council of Conservative Citizens, for example, has chapters in Birmingham, Montgomery, Florence, Jasper, and Cullman:

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has chapters in at least five Alabama cities:

And there’s a chapter of the National Socialist Movement in Mobile:

(This photo is from a rally in Minneapolis, not Mobile.)

Nevertheless, it’s highly unlikely that the swastikas carved into the courthouse steps in Birmingham have anything to do with Nazism or white supremacy.

The Jefferson County Courthouse was built in 1930 by a Chicago architectural firm, and the pedestals and its swastikas were probably carved sometime in the late 20s. Prior to World War II, the swastika appeared here and there as a decorative element on public buildings and monuments all around the U.S., without any association to Nazism or Germany.

Here it is shown as a good luck symbol on an American postcard from 1907:

The swastika as a symbol has been around for millennia, dating back as far as 3000 BC, when it showed up in the Indus Valley during the Bronze Age. According to Wiki, “Swastikas have also been used in various other ancient civilizations around the world including India, Iran, Nepal, China, Japan, Korea and Europe.” They’re found in Native American culture, as well.

Today, if you travel in India, you’ll see the swastika everywhere, especially on temples; it’s used as a religious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Like this:

The word itself, “swastika,” is from ancient Sanskrit and means, literally, “to be good.”

The question, then, is how this symbol, carved into the county courthouse in Birmingham, demonized by the Nazis, and used all over the world for centuries, came to exist in the first place? Stranger still, the symbol apparently arose spontaneously at roughly the same time in many different cultures spread very far apart, as a common representation of something, shall we say, divine. How did this happen?

Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the famous astronomer who for a couple of decades made stargazing cool, had a fascinating theory.

He proposed that the swastika symbol was inspired by a comet: a strange, great comet that was witnessed simultaneously by people all over the world, centuries ago.

He explains it (with Ann Druyan) in his 1985 book “Comet”:

“What we are imagining is something like this: It is early in the second millennium B.C. Perhaps Hammurabi is King in Babylon, Sesostris III rules in Egypt, or Minos in Crete . . . While all the people on Earth are going about their daily business, a rapidly spinning comet with four active streamers appears.”

He goes on:

“If something like it slowly materialized in your night sky amidst shrouds and fountains of dust–something self-propelled, animate, almost purposeful–you would surely find the experience noteworthy. You would speculate on its meaning, its religious significance, its portent. People would copy the symbol down so other would know about it, so that this marvel would not be forgotten. Whether you view it as an auspicious sign or as a harbinger of disaster, no one need explain to you that this thing is important.”

As proof, Sagan offers this ancient atlas of observed comets, from the Han Dynasty in China, third or fourth century BC, recorded by “the culture with the longest tradition of careful observation of comets.” And there it is, number 29 in a catalogue of comets, comet “Di-Xing,” “the long-tailed pheasant star”:

So there you have it. The unexpected but not completely implausible line from this:

To this:

(Apologies, by the way, to all the very kind and decent people I met while traveling in Alabama. This is not meant to be about you.)

Comets in Description de l’Universe

January 12, 2023August 17, 2013

Illustration of different types of comets in Alain Manesson Mallet’s Description de l’Universe (Paris, 1683). You can see the whole text, full of fabulous maps, online here.

Donati’s Comet of 1858

January 12, 2023July 16, 2013

No. 7 in our weekly comet profile is Donati’s Comet. After the Great Comet of 1811, Donati’s is known as the most brilliant comet of the 19th century. I posted one image of Donati’s Comet already, on May 1, but here she is again, seen above Paris in October 1858:

Donati’s Comet was famous for its shroud-like coma. For one stretch of three weeks, the comet expelled a new coma every 4 1/2 hours, like a woman casting off a series of veils.

Here are some more images, from “An Account of Donati’s Comet of 1858” (Cambridge, 1858), by George Bond, who also made the sketches:

Edwin Emerson’s “Comet Lore” (New York, 1910) has this to say about Donati’s Comet:

“This Comet, which appeared to be charging straight down from the zenith, and had a curved tail, was observed from June 1858 to April 1859. It was seen at its brightest in the South, in Italy, Mexico and in the Far East. While it shone over the Far East there were bloody wars between the British and the risen people of India; between the British and the Chinese, who objected to having opium thrust upon them; while Japan was in the throes of revolution and civil war. In Mexico the standard of revolt against the clericals was raised by Juarez, thus plunging Mexico into civil war and war with France. Immediately after the disappearance of the Comet war broke out in Italy between the French and Italians on one side and
the Austrians on the other, ending in the bloody Battle of Solferino.”

A lot to lay on a comet.

Closer to home, Senator Abraham Lincoln observed the comet from the porch of his hotel in Jonesboro, Illinois, as he prepared for a debate against Stephen Douglas–one of the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates over the future of slavery in America, in which Lincoln famously declared “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

A person of a novelistic bent might imagine that Donati’s Comet helped inspire these words from Lincoln, and thus, in a roundabout way, a comet helped to bring about the end of slavery in the United States.

The Great Comet of 1811, “Napoleon’s Comet”

January 12, 2023July 10, 2013

No. 6 in our Comet a Week is The Great Comet of 1811, also known as Napoleon’s Comet. With a coma over a million miles across, it was visible in the sky for almost a year. The comet was believed to have portended Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the War of 1812.

The best thing about this comet is that it makes a cameo in Count Leo Tolstoy’s magnificent War and Peace, where it’s called, confusingly, the Comet of 1812.

It appears at the end of Book Eight (in my Kropoktin translation). Pierre has just confessed his love to Natasha. Here’s the passage:

“Where now?” asked the driver.

“Where?” repeated Pierre to himself. “Where can I go now? To the club, or to make some calls?”

All men, at this moment, seemed to him so contemptible, so mean, in comparison with the feeling of emotion and love that overmastered him–in comparison with that softened glance of gratitude which she had given him just now through her tears.

“Home,” said Pierre, throwing back his bearskin cloak over his broad, joyfully throbbing chest, though the mercury marked ten degrees of frost.

It was cold and clear. Above the dirty, half-lighted streets, above the black roofs of the houses, stretched the dark, starry heavens. Only as Pierre gazed at the heavens above, he ceased to feel the humiliating pettiness of everything earthly in comparison with the height to which his soul aspired. As he drove out of Argat Square, the mighty expanse of the dark, starry sky spread out before his eyes. Almost in the zenith of this sky–above the Pretchistensky Boulevard–convoyed and surrounded on every side by stars, but distinguished from all the rest by its nearness to the earth, and by its white light, and by its long, curling tail, stood the tremendous brilliant comet of 1812–the very comet that men thought presaged all manner of woes and the end of the world.

But in Pierre, this brilliant luminary, with its long train of light, awoke no terror. On the contrary, rapturously, his eyes wet with tears, he contemplated this glorious star which seemed to him to have come flying with inconceivable swiftness through measureless space, straight toward the earth, there to strike like an enormous arrow, and remain in that one predestined spot upon the dark sky; and, pausing, raise aloft with monstrous force its curling tail, flashing and sparkling with white light, amid the countless other twinkling stars. It seemed to Pierre that this star was the complete reply to all that was in his soul as it blossomed into new life, filled with tenderness and love.

I think we can all agree that no one writes comets like Tolstoy.

The Great Comet of 1528

January 12, 2023June 26, 2013

No. 4 in our Comet of the Week: The Great Comet of 1528. The best thing about this comet is its description, provided by Monsieur Ambroise Pare, “the father of modern surgery”:

“This comet was so horrible, so frightful, and it produced such great terror in the vulgar, that some died of fear, and others fell sick. It appeared to be of excessive length, and was of the colour of blood. At the summit of it was seen the figure of a bent arm, holding in its hand a great sword, as if about to strike. At the end of the point there were three stars. On both sides of the rays of this comet were seen a great number of axes, knives, blood-coloured swords, among which were a great number of hideous human faces, with beards and bristling hair.”

He even draws it for us:

(from Pare’s “Livres de Chirurgie,” in a chapter titled “Des Monstres Celestes.” Paris, 1597.)

One problem with this comet is that no one else saw it. There’s no other record of the Great Comet of 1528.

Even though he was no astronomer, Pare ought to be a reliable witness. He was court surgeon to Kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. He’s famous for his many innovations in medicine and surgery, not the least of which were the prosthetics he invented for war amputees. Pare devised the first mechanical artificial hand, operated by catches and springs that simulated the joints of a real hand. It looked like this:

But still: ” . . . a great number of axes, knives, blood-coloured swords, among which were a great number of hideous human faces, with beards and bristling hair . . .”

Really, Pare? Really?

The Great Easter Comet of 1066

January 12, 2023June 12, 2013

This week’s featured comet: The Great Easter Comet of 1066.

The Great Easter Comet of 1066–also called “The Comet of the Conquest”–was actually Halley’s Comet, making one of its 76-year periodic appearances. And 1066, you’ll remember from history class, was the year of the Norman Conquest of England.

Legend says that the comet appeared at Easter time and shone for forty days, waxing and waning with the moon:

“Under its seven rays, that year, William the Conqueror felt inspired to fall upon England, while Harold, the Saxon, on the other hand, saw in the Comet a star of dread foreboding and of doom.”

The comet lit the Normans’ trip across the English Channel, and William pointed it out to his soldiers to stir their courage, saying it was a sign from heaven of their coming victory.

Sigebert of Brabant, a Belgian chronicler of the time, wrote of the comet: “Over the island of Britain was seen a star of a wonderful bigness, to the train of which hung a fiery sword not unlike a dragon’s tail; and out of the dragon’s mouth issued two vast rays, whereof one reached as far as France, and the other, divided into seven lesser rays, stretched away towards Ireland.”

After the Norman Conquest, the comet was immortalized in the Bayeux Tapestry, sewn by William’s wife, Queen Matilda, and her court. You can still see the tapestry in Bayeux, France. In one panel, King Harold of England is shown cowering on his throne while his people huddle together in fear, pointing at the comet. The Latin legend over the picture reads “Isti Mirant Stella”: They marvel at the star.

One result of the Norman Conquest (and of the comet, you could say) is that we now have many, many words of French origin in the English language, such as “conquest,” “origin,” and “language.”

The Great Comet of 1881

January 12, 2023May 26, 2013

“E. L. Trouvelot. The Great Comet of 1881. Observed on the night of June 25-26 at 1h. 30m. A.M.” From Stephen Ellcock’s FB catalogue, “The Celestial Archive: Pre-Space Age Images of the Heavens.”