Comets, Predicting
When comets are first seen through a telescope, they are faint, "fuzzy" patches of light at the limit of visibility. A few years ago, most comets were discovered by amateur astronomers who looked for comets as a hobby.* To find comets takes enormous patience and many nights of scanning the sky through huge binoculars or wide angle telescopes. To save time, amateur comet hunters also memorize large areas of the sky, so that they can immediately recognize when something new appears. Recently, professional astronomers have discovered many comets. Professionals normally do not spend much time looking for comets, because time on modern research telescopes is typically considered too valuable to spend on projects that are as uncertain as comet seeking. However, many research projects involve capturing long exposure electronic images of large areas of the sky for other purposes, and comets often appear in these images.
*If you find a new comet, it will bear your name!
What Are Comets?
Aristotle thought that comets were atmospheric phenomena, since they changed appearance. Aristotle's cosmology divided the universe into various spheres. The spheres below the Moon (Aristotle's sublunary spheres) were the only spheres that could change. The unchangeable heavens included the Moon and everything beyond.
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