I was grounded in too much science fiction as a lad to seriously believe in signs in the sky or astronomical portents, (black dogs are more my speed) but when a comet named Holmes (maybe after Sherlock or perhaps Celeste?) blows up to something larger than the sun, and, instead of quietly hanging round in the Kuiper Belt, becomes, if only briefly, the biggest thing in the solar system, one can but wonder – especially as we coast towards the future mythology of 2012. (The insert of Saturn in the pic gives an idea of scale.) The comet did whoever do something similar in 1892, and we are still around so maybe we shouldn't worry. Here’s one report of the event from Reuters, and another from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, both sent by our friend peromyscus.
And this is Interstellar Overdrive with Syd.
The secret word is Void
Hank Thompson -- RIP
Comet Holmes was easily visible with the naked eye about 10 days back - about magnitude 1.0 - 2.0, close to the giant star Mirfak in Perseus. It was great in binos, a big fuzzy ball in the sky, although you'd need a bigger telescope than I have to pick out its colours. My daughter Kitty (10) was happily impressed with it - quite made my evening as well. It was bright enough, I'd assume, to see even under the bright street lights of L.A. Mick's choice of 'Interstellar Overdrive' is spot on (ahem, preferably in the mono version).
ReplyDeleteProbably everybody knows this (apologies if so), but I'd hazard the phrase 'Interstellar Overdrive' first appeared in the (great) Arthur Porges 1950s short story 'The Ruum'. I wish somebody would get round to filming it.