Let's Quit Irresponsibly Hyping These Celestial Events
Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
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As I write this, Comet Lovejoy is well placed for observation in the evening sky. It's generated some lovely telescopic views and is being described as "bright" on astronomy websites. There's only one problem. It isn't bright at all. Tonight it was easy to locate in the constellation Taurus, and I finally spotted it. It was a faint, diffuse smudge even in binoculars. By the standards of someone with a 12-inch telescope, it might be bright. To the average observer armed with only a vague description of its location ("somewhere near Orion") it would be utterly invisible.
Comets
I would use the following definitions to describe the brightness of comets.
- Very Bright: A complete novice with no knowledge of the constellations, observing in a very poor setting with lots of light pollution, haze, or bright twilight, can spot the comet immediately without assistance.
- Bright: A complete novice with no knowledge of the constellations, observing in a good setting with reasonably dark skies, can spot the comet without assistance.
- Moderately Bright: Someone with simple star charts can locate the comet unaided.
- Faint: Someone with simple star charts can spot the comet after some effort.
- Binocular Comet: Comet requires binoculars to see well, and the comet is visible immediately and conspicuously if it's in the field of view.
- Telescopic Comet: Comet may be faintly visible in binoculars but requires at least a small telescope and detailed star charts to view decently.
Meteor Showers
I would use the following definitions to describe the brightness of comets.
- Intense: Someone gazing in the same direction can see a meteor at least every ten seconds. That translates to roughly 500-1000 meteors per hour over the whole sky. No regular meteor showers meet this standard! The rare outbursts, called "meteor storms," that occur at intervals of decades, do.
- Interesting: Someone gazing in the same direction can see a meteor at least every thirty seconds. That translates to roughly a couple of hundred meteors per hour over the whole sky.
- Inconspicuous: Someone gazing in the same direction can see a meteor once a minute or so. The "good" showers like the Perseids, Leonids and Geminids belong in this category.
- Weak: Anything less than the categories above.
So What Harm Does it Do?
Just this. An average non-scientist reads about a "dazzling" comet or "intense" meteor shower. He goes outside and sees nothing.
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Created 15 January 2015; Last Update 24 May, 2020
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