jackh@zehntel.UUCP (jack hagerty) (05/21/85)
The May issue of the National Space Institute's mothly publication
"Space World" has a nice general interest article on the comet by
former NSI director Dr. Mark Chartrand. I won't repeat the body of
it here since there's nothing in it that hasn't already been posted
in this newsgroup.
However, at the end of the article is the following announcement:
"For those of you with personal computers, NASA has published a
computer program written in BASIC that predicts the position of
the comet for any location and date you put in. It was written by
Dr. Robert Chapman at the Goddard Space Flight Center on an Apple IIe,
but should be useful on any microcomputer with minor modifications.
It was published in NASA's Educational Publication #197, but that may
not be easy for you to find. To get a copy of the 200 line program
listing, send a #10 (business-size) self addressed envelope with a
22 cent stamp on it to: Halley's Comet Program, National Space Institute,
Suite 203W, 600 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20024."
Not that I'm just trying to save 44 cents, but do any of you NASA types
out there know how I might get Ed Pub #197 directly? I'm within easy
driving distance of Ames if the PR department there has any. Better yet,
does anyone out there have this program on line?
One final note. The illustration that accompanies the article shows the
comet's track through the evening and morning skys next spring along
with the apparent visual magnitude. The brightest that this chart shows
the comet getting is magnitude 4.0 on April 5th. This is dissapointing.
according to articles I've read here and elsewhere is should get up to
magnitude 2.0, about the same as Polaris. Can anyone shed light on this?
--
Jack Hagerty, Zehntel Automation Systems
...!ihnp4!zehntel!jackh