Is there a place you can go to view Halley's Comet flying through space? i.e one of those really big telescopes?
2007-07-25 09:07:06 · 6 answers · asked by long t 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
At its current distance from the sun, Halley's comet has a apparent visual magnitude of approximately 26-27, around 500,000 times fainter than Pluto, assuming a 10km core diameter and its dark 0.03 albedo. Spotting it could in principle be carried out with a very large (8-10 m class) telescope and several nights of long exposures on a CCD camera looking for the speck that moves relative to the stars about where one expects comet Halley to be.
Given the demand on the time of 8-m class telescopes I doubt any of them are currently attempting observations of 10km dark chunks of ice out almost as far as pluto
2007-07-25 09:34:37 · answer #1 · answered by Mr. Quark 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not for a while. Halley's Comet only becomes visible when it is near the sun, which it does every 75 or so years. The last time was 1986 and the next time in 2061
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley's_Comet
Check with the nearest planetarium to see if they can simulate it and if they have a schedule of other periodic comets that you might view. You should also be able to find a site that will alert you to incoming comets as they are discovered, if you are really interesting.
2007-07-25 09:12:55 · answer #2 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Halley's Comet is currently very far away from us (32 au) and very faint (19th magnitude), and is moving quite slowly because of its great distance from the Sun. Nobody's much interested in it until it gets close again in early 2062. There are much more interesting comets currently visible in our sky, such as LINEAR C/2006 VZ13, which I saw a few nights ago with 10x50 binoculars.
2007-07-25 10:56:04 · answer #3 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Halley's comet is probably not visible at all right now, except for possibly by the Hubble. It's not outgassing, it's way out in space, and it's pretty small.
Halley's last came in 1986, I think, in the spring, and I think its period is 76 years. You won't see it again until sometime around 2062.
2007-07-25 09:15:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but you need to use a very large telescope and a camera and have plenty of time. The last known image of Haley's Comet was in March 2003. It took 81 images over three days to compile the image. I hope this helps. Good luck.
2007-07-25 09:13:55 · answer #5 · answered by ngc7331 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
me
2015-09-17 12:51:32 · answer #6 · answered by Halley2364 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋