Find your way around the night sky with The Astronomer Book, the perfect guide for any stargazer. Learn how to set up your telescope and get started with astrophotography, and enjoy the everyday wonders all around you, from mirages to rainbows. You'll then find in-depth guides to help you observe the wonders of the universe, from the Sun, Moon and stars to the unique features of the planets of the Solar System. Discover how to view meteor showers and comets, uncover the beauty of an eclipse and much more. On top of all that, you'll find a huge star atlas, showing you where to look to see the stars and constellations for each month of the year.
Have you ever seen a shooting star? What you genuinely saw was a meteor! A meteor is in fact a chunk of metallic or stony matter – called a meteoroid – that enters the earth’s atmosphere from outer space. A comet, on the other hand, is a lump of ice and dust that periodically comes into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its outer reaches. Discover much more about meteors and comets in this lively and informative book!
For many astronomers, the holy grail of observation is to discover a comet, not least because comets always bear the name of their discoverer! Hunting and Imaging Comets was written for comet hunters and digital imagers who want to discover, rediscover, monitor, and make pictures of comets using astronomical CCD cameras and DSLRs. The old days of the purely visual comet hunter are pretty much over, but this is not to say that amateurs have lost interest in finding comets.
Added by: ebuensar | Karma: 263.16 | Fiction literature | 10 August 2010
2
The Omega Point
2012 came and went. The world prepared itself for impending disaster - and nothing happened. Or so it seemed.But by 2020, energy from a supernova is disrupting the sun. Solar storms ravage the globe with unprecedented ferocity, and debris in the form of comets and asteroids threaten to end life on earth. The wealthy of the world hide in vast underground bunkers, but even they know that they cannot survive without a miracle.
The idea that comets may be connected with the origin of life on Earth was considered heresy a few decades ago, with scientists shying away from this possibility as if from a medieval superstition. However the case that comets may have contributed at least the complex organic building blocks of life has become very strong, and mechanisms have now been identified whereby comets may incubate and transfer microbial life from one cosmic habitat to another in the Galaxy.
