dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (03/16/86)
This is the birthday of a woman who discovered eight comets. More -- after this. March 16: The Woman Who Discovered Eight Comets Caroline Herschel was born on today's date in the year 1750. She happened to be the sister of William Herschel, who among other things discovered the planet Uranus. You don't hear nearly as much about Caroline as William. But she observed the skies alongside her brother--and on her own discovered eight comets. Anyone with a small telescope, a dark sky, and a lot of patience can discover a comet. It's supposed to be one of the most serene occupations you can have. What most people do is pick out special areas of the sky, places where they expect a comet to appear. Then they sweep through these hunting-grounds many times in search of newly arriving comets. We've heard that when you first start looking for comets, you spend hours pouring over catalogues, trying to identify every hazy star cluster and nebula. But after awhile you begin to learn these fixed markers. Your lonely hours spent sweeping for comets take you to a realm beyond Earth--but nonetheless one that you know. Caroline Herschel used a telescope that was especially good for hunting comets-- a four-inch telescope with a wide field of view. With this instrument, she must have spent thousands of hours sweeping certain areas of the sky-- whose pattern of stars must have become very familiar. If you've never seen a comet, this is prime time for seeing Comet Halley. Take your binoculars and look in a very dark sky before dawn. Halley will be in the southeast -- like a fuzzy star with a tail! Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin