MAN IN THE METEORITE

Man in the Meteorite, Fernbank Science Center, 2007
Light box enlargement

H.o.p. and I spent the past several days reviewing our knowledge on comets in preparation for a planned Friday night excursion to the Fernbank Science Center observatory to see Comet Holmes. As it turned out, they were having troubles with the telescope and the observatory, which normally opens at 8:00, didn’t open until 9:30. There were still problems and what we saw resembled nothing like this. Instead there was a vague haze with very little brightness and no observable nucleus. But then a member of the astronomy club here once told me that it was better to observe very distant objects on the observatory’s high powered scope, than relatively near ones, so that may have been a factor. Usually there are individuals out with at least one–often two–small telescopes, but there were none tonight.

Never-the-less, the outing was enjoyable. The science center was filled with people eager to see Holmes. The desk attendants were harried and at least once every couple of minutes were answering a newcomer’s inquiry of “Why is the observatory not open?” and repeatedly informing those already waiting that no they didn’t know yet whether it would open or not but perhaps.

I took some photos in the science center, tonight capturing the Man in the Meteorite.