One reason I post here.

You'll appreciate why I said that when you watch the penultimate scene, it's classic!

Oh thank you I will be definitely watch.

You mean the 1202 data overload alarm..???
So, does FMITM come up with a 'new' take on it...?

See you on here Monday ...

Putting the wheels on the latest Mars rover. See here.

...especially with binoculars. There's more about the comet here http://www.scientificamerican.com/bl...-le-2010-10-22 and a sky finder guide here http://stardate.org/mediacenter/201010-comet-hartley-2. It's between Auriga and Gemini right now.

Mind you it has been a bit of a disappointment.

Talking of disappointing comets reminds me of Kohoutek. It promised so much and delivered so little.

...whereas Comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp were awesome in the original meaning of the word.

Indeed they were. My fondest memories are of Bennett though.

Erm, I wondered why I didn't remember/know about that comet and then I saw the date and it was a bit before my time as it were. Still, the pics look good.

Well my memories of Bennett are far better than the books suggest. It might have something to do with the fact that I had decent skies in those days.

have i missed the comet

when can i see it

Not at all, no worries, just follow the links below:

having read the links i am still confused when it is and how to find it in sky

and at what time

I've just been looking at Hartley 2 tonight.
With the Moon only just past 'full', and getting closer to Hartley by the day... (night ) It's getting very difficult to pick out from the background sky.
I was just able to discern it using a mounted pair of 70mm binoculars, and a couple of astronomer's tricks (averted vision, and tapping the tripod)

To be honest, unless you have some big binocs, or a widefield telescope of 4" diameter of more, I wouldn't bother until Halloween night.
Over the next few days, the Moon will pass very close to the comet as they both pass through Gemini - and glare it out even more than it's doing tonight.

Come Halloween night though - the Moon will be out of the way, and the return to GMT will mean that Hartley is at a reasonable height for viewing by 11pm or so.

The link below is a pic I just knocked up by adding a few notations to a screengrab from 'starry Night Pro' software.
Looking East/Southeast - It shows Hartley's approx position at about 1am-2am tonight
And also - in red - it's position at about Midnight on Halloween.
If you want to see it, try to catch it within about a fortnight of Halloween, as it drops down through Canis Minor and Monoceros. By Mid November the Moon will be back big and bright, spoiling the view - and by the time the Moon is out of the way again, in early December, Hartley will be low to the South, around 3am-ish (to the left of Sirius) and fading fast.
Position of Hartley 2

If you can find 4th magnitude Kappa Aurigae - it's very close, just to the right of it.

I have always been interested in all this looking at the sky stuff. Trouble is, I can't. All I see is a orange glow.

So how far out of town would I have to travel to get a decent veiw of the stars? And what websites could I use to help me look for nice things in the sky? Also what basic equipment would I need?

I would love to see the ISS. I know this can be seen with the naked eye but I would rather a close up.

Thanks.

A great graphic Carlos. Thanks a lot.

You are in the right place at the right time. The ISS reappears on Thursday 28th October. It will be mentioned here.

We follow it on Heavens above.

Also real live tracking.

This shows the ISS all day every day. It is flying over Canada right now.

Very interesting youtube. News on shuttle. View at youtube.

Ive got a telescope, what should i be able to see when looking at a star? all i get it a half moon type grey fuzz. Doesnt look very interesting.

Do all stars look like this through your scope?

A single star should focus down to a point of light - the smaller and tighter that point, the better the optics.

The interesting stuff comes when the stars a bundled together in clusters, galaxies, etc
Or multiple star-systems (doubles, triples, quadruples, etc...), nebulae, planets, and so-on.

...brought to you by NASA and there's more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...e-forever.html.

Actually, things are a little less dramatic than the title originally suggests because what NASA are proposing are one way missions to Mars for colonist astronauts.

I assume this is, in part, due to cost because not offering a return trip will significantly reduce mission costs. It also means that the only help astronauts already on Mars will get is from the next batch of one-way astronauts.

Certainly Mars has enough water present in the form of ice and permafrost to supply colonists and the water can be used to generate oxygen for breathing. That does require a stable power source to be able to do things like that so the only viable energy source would initially appear to be nuclear power.

The second last shuttle crew. See here.

And another great picture.

It is hard to believe that it is nearly all over. I guess the CT theorists will soon explain how it was all faked!

In December 1969 there was a little vinyl freebie with National Geographic about the moon landings. I listened to it so often I can still remember quite a few of the words. You can listen too.

It ended with "Tomorrow together just where might we go?"

Sadly no where near as far as seemed possible then.

I've just been reading Mike Mullane's Riding Rockets, as recommended upthread, and will be sad to see the shuttle go. However, I can understand why it is being retired.

On the subject of shuttle CT, I did manage to shut one tinfoil-hatter up in RL by asking them where the last crews of Challenger and Columbia are now, if they never went into space. Are they all hiding in a cupboard in Houston somewhere?