[AZ-Observing] Comet McNaught from Up North
- From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:00:10 -0500
Brian mentioned the visibility of synchrones in the comet's tail from Arizona.
There are some good images from Colorado at spaceweather.com. Look just below
the "Comet McNaught Photo Gallery" link, and be sure to look at "more images"
below it.
http://spaceweather.com/
What is amazing is that these streamers are at nearly a 90 degree orientation
to the tail near the coma. The best image for showing the bending of these
rays is Rob McNaught's own, which is (currently) the second image on his site.
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1.htm
Hardly anybody is composing their photos correctly. Only Rob used landscape
orientation and a wide enough lens to capture all of the tail. Those streaks
at the far right-hand edge of the frame are what's visible from up here.
I asked an innocent question to the "comets-ml" mailing list about how
synchrones were formed, and it has prompted a lively discussion, which is up
for public viewing.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/comets-ml/
I don't think this synchrone stuff is very well defined or understood by many
people. This is not surprising, as the last comet to really show them well was
seen 31 years ago. At the latest count, there are four terms: synchrones,
syndynes, striae, and streamers. I think the features are best thought of as
"mini-tails" that each have their own trajectories.
Tom
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