Comet Honda Coming Closer To Earth

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by Yvonne Smith, Dec 25, 2016.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    14,881
    Likes Received:
    27,873
    This comet is getting brighter, and they are saying that it should be able to be seen with binoculars before long. It is one that comes through about every five years, and was last here in 2011.
    It is coming closer and will make its swing around the sun before long and then head back out again. The time that it will be closest to the earth is when it is heading back out, and will be in February.
    According to the video I was watching, it is most likely to break and lose parts as it swings around the sun; so it is possible that we will see parts of the comet falling away, and have meteor showers.

     
    #1
    Joe Riley likes this.
  2. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
    Some think comets can trigger a coronal mass ejection (CME)—erupt from the sun and barrel into space. Here’s how the world could end—and what we can do about it
    [​IMG]
    Electrical surges due to a solar storm shocked telegraph operators in 1859; today, they could wreak havoc on power grids and electronics.

    A Pail of Air
    By FRITZ LEIBER
     
    #2
    Yvonne Smith likes this.
  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    14,881
    Likes Received:
    27,873
    He did mention those in the video; but hopefully we don't get any EOL coronal mass ejections. However, I CAN cook over a campfire if it comes to that and we need to.
    Not looking forward to any lengthy power outages, for sure !
    The last one was when we had the tornadoes, and had no power for almost two weeks.
     
    #3
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2016
    Frank Sanoica likes this.
  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Yvonne Smith
    Two weeks without power! How did you save your freezer's contents? One summer in MO, my wife away visiting her Mother in Indiana, we got one of those big summer thunderstorms that break off frail, old, rotten wooden power poles. Still, outages were nearly a weekly thing, mostly back on within an hour. That was real rural living! Well, without power, I had no potable water, plenty in the creek. Plenty of firewood. But the fridge worried me, the freezer too, but less. The fridge's temperature after 24 hours was up to 50+ degrees. Lots of food spoilage looming. 2nd. day, getting more worried, I drove the 55 miles to Rolla, picked up a 3500 watt generator from Lowe's, came back thinking, watch, the power will be on! Nope! I wired it in through an outside 240 volt outlet which fed our well pump. No transfer switch at all. Shut off main circuit breaker at meter. This "powered up" our entire fusebox, and by carefully selecting what I allowed to run, kept the freezer and fridge going 100%, water heater OR stove, never both at once, and one or two small lights inside the house. So I had all the comforts of home, shutting down the generator overnight. The water heater was for my daily shower; I could have heated water on the stove and washed a bit less conveniently.

    The outage lasted 7 days. The several cans of gasoline used cost far less than all the spoiled food would have. Life in the middle of Mark Twain National Forest!
    Frank
     
    #4
  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    14,881
    Likes Received:
    27,873
    We had the ice storms when I lived in Missouri, too; but none that lasted more than a day without power again. I used my pitchfork to get back and forth to the barn to feed the horses. The ground was solid ice and way too slippery to walk; so I stabbed the pitchfork into the ice, slid a couple feet as carefully as I could and repeated the process until I made it out to the barn and back.
    When we had the tornadoes (2011 if I remember right), all of the Huntsville area, plus a lot of other places in Alabama , were out of power. Thankfully, we had water, and it was April, so not really cold either.
    We didn't have a freezer; but lost everything in the refrigerator that we couldn't use right away, as did just about everyone else. Roads were all blocked with downed trees and power lines, not even emergency crews made it into our area for over 24 hours afterwards, and even people with generators had no way to buy fuel once they used up whatever they had on hand.
    We lived close to a little neighborhood store, and everything they had spoiled, too. However, we could buy canned food from them with cash (no cash registers working), and so we had things like canned chili and such to supplement the food that was at our house.
    Thankfully, no other tornadoes since then, and we now live in a different area of town that seems to be out of the main storm tracks.
     
    #5
  6. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2016
    Messages:
    9,297
    Likes Received:
    10,619
    @Yvonne Smith
    I recall the tornadoes you speak of. We were out here in the rented condo, and we wondered about the safety of a wonderful young man we had met via the net, Van Robinson, who lived near Yahoo City, MS. He had invited us to come down there from Mo, considering Mississippi for retirement. We took him up on it. Met him for lunch, a most decent, collected and hospitable man. He was born and raised down there, was actually named Van Hilton Robinson, III. He said he represented "Southern Hospitality", which he most certainly did, honorably.

    Turned out, we opted for the desert southwest, our PC was destroyed in the malicious wrecking of our farmhouse, and I have lost track of him. A Southern Gentleman of the "nth" degree, he was.
    Frank
     
    #6
    Yvonne Smith likes this.
  7. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
    Will This Secret Weapon Wipe Out America?
     
    #7
    Yvonne Smith likes this.
  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2015
    Messages:
    14,881
    Likes Received:
    27,873
    Tonite is the night to watch for the comet if you are outside and the sky is clear in your area. We have rain in the forecast here, as well as a lot of trees in the western skyline, so it is not likely that we will be able to see the comet from here.
    However, what they are suggesting is to look in the western sky after sunset, and the comet can be seen near the moon in the sky. They said you will need some kind of telescope or at least a good set of binoculars in order to see the comet. I think that it will be visible for a while before it heads back out again after perihelion , and also we may have some parts falling off that would make "falling stars", as we used to call them.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/12/29/look-sky-new-years-eve-comet/95952054/
     
    #8
    Joe Riley likes this.
  9. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
  10. Joe Riley

    Joe Riley Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2015
    Messages:
    13,934
    Likes Received:
    22,555
    Cloudy and raining, where we are.:(
     
    #10

Share This Page