Has Ison survived?

Maybe. The BBC have a report here.

Comet Ison

Comet Ison reaches perihelion (the nearest point to the sun) at 18:37:45 today. The big question is whether it will survive, and if it does, whether it will put on a good show in early december. Here's hoping.

NEXT MEETING

There is NO MEETING in December

Wednesday 29th January
Annual General Meeting

All meetings begin at 7.30pm. The full programme can be viewed here.

Amateur Spectroscopy

Rob Johnson of Liverpool AS gave an enthralling talk yesterday on spectroscopy. He showed us what an amateur could do with relatively cheap equipment to take the spectra of stars and gather informationm from them. It reminded me of my previous studies when I was always amazed at just how much information could be discerned from a simple spectrum. I was also interested to see that he proved that there is oxygen in the earth's atmosphere. I had always wondered...

Multitailed Asteroid ... Comet ... whatever

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an object with 6 comet-like tails. Different reports classify the object as a comet or asteroid, revealing the fact that often there is little difference between them.

Further information here and here.