[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) NAMN Notes: November 2001
*************************
NAMN Notes: November 2001
*************************
Introduction:
NAMN Notes is a monthly newsletter produced by the North American Meteor
Network, and is available both via email, and on the NAMN website at:
http://www.namnmeteors.org
Contents:
1. Leonids - Event of the Year!...
2. Meet a Researcher - David Asher...
3. A Leonid Checklist...
4. Other November Showers...
5. Upcoming Meetings...
6. For more info...
1. Leonids - Event of the Year!...
What is this shower? The Leonids are a sight of a lifetime when they storm,
and they are predicted to storm in large numbers this year. These meteors
are debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
i) The Parent Comet...
The comet was discovered on December 19th, 1865 by Ernst Wilhelm Liebrecht
Tempel in Marseilles, France. Tempel was born in 1821 in Nieder-Kunersdorf,
in Saxony. He trained as a lithographer, and took up astronomy as a side
interest. When he moved to Venice, he purchased a 4 inch refractor, and
started looking for comets from a balcony of a Venetian palace. He found
his first in 1859, also the year in which he became the first observer to
note the nebula around the star Merope in the Pleiades. In 1860, he moved
to Marseilles, France, obtained employment at the observatory, and went on
to discover 8 more comets, including the famous Tempel-Tuttle as we now know
it. In 1871 he moved to Milan, Italy, taking a job as an assistant to
Schiaparelli at the Brera Observatory. He discovered 3 more comets at
Milan. In late 1874 he moved to Florence and the Arcetri Observatory, and
using larger telescopes, found 1 more comet. In all, he was the first
discoverer of 13 comets. Tempel died in 1889, and was buried near the tomb
of Donati, whose name is also famous for comets.
Comet Tempel-Tuttle was also discovered by Horace Parnell Tuttle of
Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA on January 6th,
1866. Tuttle was an assistant astronomer at the Harvard College
Observatory. He discovered his first comet in 1857, which turned out to be
periodic Comet Brorsen. In 1858 he made a first discovery of Comet 1858 I,
now called periodic Comet Tuttle. He went on to a total of 4 comet
discoveries, and 9 co-discoveries. The most famous of these comets are 1862
III Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteors, and 1866 I
Tempel-Tuttle, the parent of the Leonid meteors. In 1862, Tuttle left
Harvard, served in the infantry in the American Civil War, then transferred
to the navy. He served on the U.S.S. Catskill, an iron-clad ship engaged in
the blockade of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. By day he acted as
paymaster... and by night he made observations of comets! After the navy,
he worked with the