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Great Comet Of 1861
The Great Comet of 1861, formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a great comet—one of the eight greatest comets of the 19th century. It was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, on May 13, 1861, with an apparent magnitude of +4, a month before perihelion (June 12). It was not visible in the northern hemisphere until June 29, but it arrived before word of the comet's discovery. On June 29, 1861, Comet C/1861 J1 passed 11.5 degrees (23 Sun-widths) from the Sun. (Observer Location:500) On the following day, June 30, 1861, the comet made its closest approach to the Earth at a distance of . During the Earth close approach, the comet was estimated to be between magnitude 0 and −2 with a tail of over 90 angular degrees. As a result of forward scattering, C/1861 J1 even cast shadows at night (Schmidt 1863; Marcus 1997). During the night of June ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Tebbutt
John Tebbutt (25 May 1834 – 29 November 1916) was an Australian astronomer, famous for discovering the " Great Comet of 1861". Early life Tebbutt was born at Windsor, New South Wales, the only son of John Tebbutt, then a prosperous store keeper. His grandfather, John Tebbutt, was one of the early settlers in Australia; he arrived at Sydney about the end of 1801. Tebbutt was educated first at the Church of England parish school, then at a private school kept by the Rev. Mathew Adam of the local Presbyterian church, and finally at a small but excellent school under the Rev. Henry Tarlton Stiles, where he had a sound training in Latin. Career In 1845 Tebbutt's father purchased a tract of land at the eastern end of the town of Windsor known as the peninsula, and built a residence there. In 1853 John Tebutt purchased a sextant and using this along with an ordinary marine telescope and a watch began his observations of the heavens. About nine years later, on 13 May 1861, Tebbutt dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt
Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt (25 October 1825 in Eutin, Germany – 7 February 1884 in Athens, Greece) was a German astronomer and geophysicist. He was the director of the National Observatory of Athens in Greece from 1858 to 1884. Julius Schmidt was tireless in his work, it was suggested by William Henry Pickering that he perhaps devoted more of his life than any other man to the study of the Moon. During his lifetime, he made some of the most complete lunar maps of the 19th century. According to his own analysis, he mapped no less than 32,856 craters, with Mädler mapping 7,735 and Lohrmann 7,177. Schmidt also mapped 348 lunar rilles. In six years, he made almost 57,000 micrometer settings to make 3050 height measurements. Biography Early life Schmidt was born in the town of Eutin to his father Carl Friedrich Schmidt, a glazier and mother Maria Elisabeth Quirling. He went to school at a gymnasium in Hamburg, where he impressed with his sense of form and drawing abiliti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canopus (star)
Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also designated α Carinae, which is Latinised to Alpha Carinae. With a visual apparent magnitude of −0.74, it is outshone only by Sirius. Located around from the Sun, Canopus is a bright giant of spectral type A9, so it is essentially white when seen with the naked eye. It has a luminosity over 10,000 times the luminosity of the Sun, is eight times as massive, and has expanded to 71 times the Sun's radius. Its enlarged photosphere has an effective temperature of around . Canopus is undergoing core helium burning and is currently in the so-called blue loop phase of its evolution, having already passed through the red-giant branch after exhausting the hydrogen in its core. Canopus is a source of X-rays, which are likely being emitted from its corona. The prominent appearance of Canopus means it has been the subject of mytholog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirius
Sirius is the list of brightest stars, brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek language, Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinisation of names, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CMa or α CMa. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, Sirius is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. Sirius is a binary star consisting of a main-sequence star of spectral type A-type main-sequence star, A0 or A1, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, termed Sirius B. The distance between the two varies between 8.2 and 31.5 astronomical units as they orbit every 50 years. Sirius appears bright because of its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to the Solar System. At a distance of , the Sirius system is one of Earth's List of nearest stars, nearest neighbours. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procyon
Procyon () is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor and usually the eighth-brightest star in the night sky, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.34. It has the Bayer designation α Canis Minoris, which is Latinized to Alpha Canis Minoris, and abbreviated α CMi or Alpha CMi, respectively. As determined by the European Space Agency ''Hipparcos'' astrometry satellite, this system lies at a distance of just , and is therefore one of Earth's nearest stellar neighbors. A binary star system, Procyon consists of a white-hued main-sequence star of spectral type F5 IV–V, designated component A, in orbit with a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DQZ, named Procyon B. The pair orbit each other with a period of 40.84 years and an eccentricity of 0.4. Observation Procyon is usually the eighth-brightest star in the night sky, culminating at midnight on 14 January. It forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle asterism, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eridanus (constellation)
Eridanus () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is represented as a river. One of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It is the sixth largest of the modern constellations, and the one that extends farthest in the sky from north to south. The same name was later taken as a Latin name for the real Po River and also for the name of a minor river in Athens. Features Stars At its southern end is the magnitude 0.5 star Achernar, designated Alpha Eridani. It is a blue-white hued main sequence star 144 light-years from Earth, whose traditional name means "the river's end". Achernar is a very peculiar star because it is one of the flattest stars known. Observations indicate that its radius is about 50% larger at the equator than at the poles. This distortion occurs because the star is spinning extremely rapidly. There are several other noteworthy stars in Eridanus, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aphelion
An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any elliptic orbit. The name for each apsis is created from the prefixes ''ap-'', ''apo-'' (), or ''peri-'' (), each referring to the farthest and closest point to the primary body the affixing necessary suffix that describes the primary body in the orbit. In this case, the suffix for Earth is ''-gee'', so the apsides' names are ''apogee'' and ''perigee''. For the Sun, its suffix is ''-helion'', so the names are ''aphelion'' and ''perihelion''. According to Newton's laws of motion, all periodic orbits are ellipses. The barycenter of the two bodies may lie well within the bigger body—e.g., the Earth–Moon barycenter is about 75% of the way from Earth's center to its surface. If, compared to the larger mass, the smaller mass is negligible (e.g., f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eris (dwarf Planet)
Eris (minor-planet designation 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high-eccentricity orbit. Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory–based team led by Mike Brown and verified later that year. In September 2006, it was named after the GrecoRoman goddess of strife and discord. Eris is the ninth-most massive known object orbiting the Sun and the sixteenth-most massive overall in the Solar System (counting moons). It is also the largest object that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Eris has been measured at in diameter; its mass is 0.28% that of the Earth and 27% greater than that of Pluto, although Pluto is slightly larger by volume. Eris has one large known moon, Dysnomia. In February 2016, Eris's distance from the Sun was , more than three times that of Neptune or Pluto. With the exception of long-period comets, Eris and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwarf Planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to planetary geologists is that they may be geologically active bodies, an expectation that was borne out in 2015 by the ''Dawn'' mission to and the '' New Horizons'' mission to Pluto. Astronomers are in general agreement that at least the nine largest candidates are dwarf planets: Pluto, , , , , , , , and . Of these and the tenth-largest candidate , all but Sedna have either been visited by spacecraft (Pluto and Ceres) or have at least one known moon (Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus, and Salacia), which allows their masses and thus an estimate of their densities to be determined. Mass and density in turn can be fit into geophysical models in an attempt to determine the nature of these worlds. Some astronomers include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C/1861 G1
Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) is a long-period comet with roughly a 415-year orbit that is expected to return around 2283. It was discovered by A. E. Thatcher. It is responsible for the April Lyrid meteor shower. Carl Wilhelm Baeker also independently found this comet. The comet passed about from the Earth on 1861-May-05 and last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 1861-Jun-03. C/1861 G1 is listed as a long-period "non-periodic comet" because it has not yet been observed at two perihelion passages. When it is seen to come back around 2283, it should receive the P/ designation. The comet is the parent body of the April Lyrids meteor shower. See also * C/1861 J1 The Great Comet of 1861, formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a great comet—one of the eight greatest comets of the 19th century. ... – Great comet of 1861 * 153P/Ikeya–Zhang – pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1500 In Science
The year 1500 AD in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here. Astronomy * June 1–24 – Johannes Werner tracks the movement of a comet. It has been suggested that this was C/1861 J1. * November 5–6 – Nicolaus Copernicus observes a lunar eclipse from Rome. Cartography * Map of Juan de la Cosa, the earliest to show the Americas. * ''approx. date'' – Johannes Stabius introduces the "Werner projection". Cryptography * ''approx. date'' – Johannes Trithemius of Spanheim writes ''Steganographia'' ("hidden writing"). Copies of the manuscript circulate for a hundred years. Earth science * Leonardo da Vinci, finding many fossils in canal building sites, proposes that fossil shells of marine animals are found on mountains because Earth undergoes transformations that cause areas once submerged to become exposed. Exploration * March 9–April 22 – Expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral, with thirteen caravels, sails from Lisbon to Brazil, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuichi Nakano
is a Japanese astronomer. He specializes in the study of comets, in particular calculating their orbits and making predictions about when periodic comets will return for another perihelion approach. It is considerably more difficult to predict the orbits of comets than of other types of Solar System objects, since their orbits are susceptible not only to perturbations from the planets but also to non-gravitational forces due to the release of gaseous material in the form of a comet's coma and tail. He is affiliated with the Computing & Minor Planet Sections (Center for Astrodynamics) of the Oriental Astronomical Association in Sumoto, Japan. He publishes the ''Nakano Notes'' on comet observations and ephemerides. In 2001 he won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The asteroid 3431 Nakano is named after him, and asteroid 3983 Sakiko is named after his sister. 1026 Ingrid was reidentified in 1986 by Syuichi Nakano, ending its time a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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