A Green Comet Or Is It The Green Lantern

If you have not already,

dust off that old telescope you lost interest in years ago,

because the

Moon

always looks the same,

search out in the starry skies tonight for,

"Comet 252P/LINEAR (which) soars into predawn view this week." By J. Kelly Beatty, Senior Editor at Sky & Telescope.

Photo by Gerald Rhemann / www.astrostudio.at

Astronomers who scan the skies for returning comets are often disappointed. Sometimes these icy visitors from the fringes of our planetary system end up being much fainter than predicted. And sometimes the opposite happens. Comet LINEAR, now in Earth’s general vicinity, started brightening abruptly a few weeks ago and has become more than 100 times brighter than expected. Observers from the Southern Hemisphere have been able to glimpse the comet by eye, without any optical aid, from very dark skies. Now Comet LINEAR is moving rapidly northward into view from the Northern Hemisphere. You’ll need to be out at least 1½ hours before sunrise, in a location as free from light pollution as possible. The comet is moving between the distinctive constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, located low in the southern part of the sky before dawn. Each morning the comet will be higher up with respect to the surrounding stars, as shown on the chart.

Diagram by Sky & Telescope

The planets Saturn and Mars are in this part of the sky as well. They and the bright star Antares will be the first things you notice, forming a distinctive triangle. The comet is climbing to the left of this trio. It will be roughly in line with Mars and Saturn on the morning of March 29th and along a line connecting Saturn and Antares on March 31st. But the comet is faint enough, especially though the moonlight, that you’ll need to use the chart to pinpoint the exact spot among the stars to examine. Photographs show that Comet LINEAR has a greenish color, caused by molecules of diatomic carbon (C₂) that are fluorescing in sunlight. However, the green tint likely won’t be evident unless you view the comet through a telescope. LINEAR is an acronym for Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research, an MIT Lincoln Laboratory program funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA.

I say,

get those telescopes out tonight

and follow the direction of this so called

Comet.

I am sure you will find,

like I see in my

Mind's Eye,

that this is really the

Green Lantern

coming to save the

Earth

from some other

Comet Catastrophe!

This is,

Memorized By The Green Light,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

"I’m sorry. I thought that this was a dog fight. I was under the impression that the objective was to win."

- Hal Jordan/The Green Lantern -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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