[Chaos-l] Watching The Deep Impact

[Robert Nielsen]

Everyone,

After the discussion I had with Alice last night at the meeting, I fired up 
the astronomy software, looked on the web, and tried to figure out if we 
could actually view the impact (or side effects) of the Deep Impact probe 
on Comet Tempel 1.   Well, what I found was that the impact is supposed to 
happen at 1:52 AM EDT on July 4th.   And here in Chapel Hill (technically, 
at ECHHS or 35 degrees 57.686 minutes north and 79 degrees 1.953 minutes 
west, the comet will set at around 1:32 AM.   So people here in Chapel Hill 
will have to wait until the next night to see the effects.

I will actually be out of town over the July 4th weekend ... in western NC 
... in the mountains ... and if the software is correct and I can find a 
hill that is a couple of hundred meters tall without obstructions in 
exactly the right direction, I may just barely be able to see the impact 
before the comet sets.   Of course, I will be looking right at the horizon 
... so the seeing will be TERRIBLE.

I guess we'll all just have to see the pictures on the web taken by someone 
else.  Still, it will be fun to try ...

Robert Nielsen