wigwam jones Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262782,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17872359/ Unless this is a rather elaborate April Fool's Joke being perpetrated on thenews networks, an Australian named Terry Lovejoy of Thornlands, Queensland,Australia, discovered a 9th magnitude comet (whatever that is) with the aid ofhis Canon 350D and zoom lens set to 200mm f/2.8. The comet is named for thephotographer - Comet Lovejoy. Cool stuff, and Good on ye, Terry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sattler123 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 I highly suspect that this is indeed an April's fool joke! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_daalder Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 No hoax, it has been observed independently and an ephemeris is now available from the <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K07/K07F32.html"> IAU's Minor Planet Center.<a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee_bacsik Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 If it's a hoax the major news associations have been fooled as well. Read the article on Yahoo News this morning. As long as we don't have any 5D's finding Bigfoot or D200's sighting Elvis I guress it's legit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee_bacsik Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 If it's a hoax the major news associations have been fooled as well. Read the article on Yahoo News this morning. As long as we don't have any 5D's finding Bigfoot or D200's sighting Elvis I guess it's legit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanphysics Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 It would have to be the lamest April Fools joke in history. Comets are discovered by amateurs all the time. Most of them are, in fact, and using modest equipment. Big observatories don't have the time or the interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceanphysics Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Sorry, editing problem. Second sentence should have read "Most of them, in fact, using modest equipment." Big observatories do discover a lot (I'm sure most) comets, but it's not a priority for many of them and there are a lot of amateurs out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_r2 Posted April 1, 2007 Share Posted April 1, 2007 Sounds legit, as it would be too silly to make an April Fool's joke like this. And just to clarify: A 9th Magnitude object should be very dim, as the dimmer stars in the Little Dipper are 7th or 6th Magnitude, and most of us can barely see those. Like F-stops, the smaller the number, the brighter it is. I may be mistaken, but I think the sun is around -22nd Magnitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_daalder Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 An <a href="http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=84,384,0,0,1,0"> interview </a> with Terry Lovejoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_godwin1 Posted April 13, 2007 Share Posted April 13, 2007 In case anyone was still wondering about star magnitude, here's a link to explain it: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/icq/MagScale.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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