Click to ENLARGE. [I have been accused, often, of being too laid-back during presentations. But, when you have done as many as I have, it is but second nature. Just muscle memory.]Click image to access the ‘Laconia Rotary’ Facebook post.
This was a short, 20-minute presentation (which went on for a bit longer). This video is not of the live presentation. It was ‘taped’ (& you should be glad of that).
Instead, this is my PowerPoint presentation made into a YouTube video set to music. It is just under 2.5 minutes. So, not too painful to watch.
This is NOT one of my full-blown, 1-hour (+) comet presentations. It was meant to be short, quick & with an emphasis on C/2022 E3 (ZTF). So, please don’t take this as one of my usual, in-depth comet presentations. I will, now that I have done this, make one of those too. OK?
Click to ENLARGE. From the EXCELLENT ‘The Sky Live‘ (such a wonderful resource).
Click to ENLARGE. The title slide of my C/2022 E3 (ZTF) PowerPoint presentation.
I went out TWICE tonight — about 4.5 hours apart. The first was around 7:30pm. I drove 4-miles to the top of a hill to get above the treeline. Took a pair of BIG, powerful 17×70 binoculars with me. I spent about 30 minutes scanning the general area. Nothing.
Then went out again around midnight. Was out for about 40 minutes. Used a second pair of binoculars — not as powerful. Checked the sky map multiple times. I was looking in the right area. Couldn’t miss the moon & Mars. But, still nothing. It was bitterly cold. Might try again tomorrow night.
To claim that it visited 50,000 years ago is pure speculation — sensationalism & IGNORANCE on the part of the media.
Yes, it currently has an estimated orbital period of ~50,000 years. But, if you check Wikipedia or any other semi-reliable source you will find that this is CLEARLY marked — INBOUND.
We ONLY know that it currently has an estimated orbital period of ~50,000 based on what we have seen so far of its orbit.
There is no guarantee, whatsoever, that it has made this trip before.
Most of these non-periodic comets (as designated by the “C/” at the front of its official name) are SINGLE-APPARITION comets or 1st time comets. In other words, they haven’t made this trip, i.e., enter the inner solar system to go around the Sun.
Yes, these comets are likely to have existed since the time the Solar System came to be 4.5 billion years ago. But, that doesn’t mean that they started whizzing around on the orbital paths that bring them this close to the sun as of that time. They tend to stay in a far, far out circular obit way out there in the ‘Oort Cloud‘.
So, don’t just buy into this 50,000 year claim. We just don’t know. It is sheer speculation.
Oh, we also can’t be sure it will be back in 50,000 years!
