I plan on imaging the B and C segments tomorrow night from a darker site in the Virginia area outside Leesburg. I am an amateur astronomer myself and primarily do imaging these days so im hoping to get some nice exposures this weekend since its new moon and the weather is supposed to be clear. The C segment is supposed to pass very near M57 (the ring nebula) sometime near may 7th and that should also make an excellent photo op!

Everyone has some nice points in here and i think everyone should stop busting neon's kiwis. He makes alot of valid points and obviously has the experience and education to back up what hes saying.

Chances are it wont hit us, but being concerned and weary over something like this that is trailing so much debris is definitely warranted imo. Its not like NASA or our representative government would tell us if it was going to hit us anyway. Should make a heck of a fireworks display either way if all that dust enters the atmosphere

If you need someone to host the pictures for you I'll be more than glad to host them in my staff account here. Email them to me at jstpeter@emich.edu with something about "ATS COMET" in the title (so I don't end up deleting it ).

Regenmacher: Thumbs up! Some sound scientific thinking going on.

Regarding likely trajectory changes:

Most likely forget about them, unless the fragments travel through large gradients of the gravitational field, which at these distances is unlikely. The Moon could play a rule in this respect.

Otherwise it's just plain conservation of the impuls vector, and nothing will happen.

No disrespect to you rainmaker because i honestly think your posts and sense of humor are pretty cool but i dont believe a peep that comes out of any govt sanctioned agency. I grew up paranoid because of my dad and his military career and the things that he had access to while serving in the JCS. He never gave me specifics of course but he always told me never to trust the government and that they were into some "very bad stuff". So please forgive me if i dont accept the party line. I wish i was skilled enough in astronomy and had the time to calculate my own orbits but alas im just a simple astrophotographer and have a passion for the night sky...

I think this like anything we discuss on this board is worthy of a 2nd look and not so easily dismissed as fear mongering. More than likely it is but i like to always keep an open mind

Cmdrkeen, i have my own website so i will more than likely host them there with my other pics but thanks for the offer. I will post a link if they turn out.

NASA Clarifies Information on Comet Approach NASA.gov
Astronomers have been observing the comet for more than 75 years

im sorry but as i understand,te tradjectory plotted from thw origial spotters..
on 1930 August 24. estimated a route for the comet

AS A SINGLE BODY

it has now fragmented into 40 + pieces

ok sceptics... can any body on here... you know who you are you clever little
poopooheads"bugslife quote" tell me the EXACT tradjectory or each incoming fragmet...????

as i said before.. was a little fun with a bit of doomsdaying. but now it,s not looking so funny..

gravitational or impact influence from 2006gy2 could mean a big difference from a BIG DOOMSDAY JOKE and a serious local environmental disaster

please understand this is not my personal opinion.

while i am perfectly aware this would not be a "global killer",the immediate vicinity would be vapourised adjcent to an impact of even a small "truck" size piece of comet at 20,000 km,s ps due to the kinetic energy

ok here,s a bit of "doomsdaying for you too"
the freakiest day of my life was when i went to a local video shop' remember vcr,s????"

i followed before some of the studies of nostradamus.. with a SUPER HIGH degree of scepticism

guess what i saw on the cover that struck my mind!!!!

THE FALL OF COMMUNISM!!..

i laughed my poverbial boobies off as this was august 19991 and Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev had just been kidnapped by communist rebels protesting about his pro western/democratic stance

i actually put the video back as i thought."well that messes up his current "prophecy"

i stopped laughing the very next day when he was released and then shut down the kgb ,arrested his security force kidnappers and within weeks communism was officially wiped out!!!!!!!!!!

imagine your feeling when you had read this only the back of a sensationalist video cassette

i started backtracking a lot of his previous uncannily correct theories

napoleon. "hister"/ hitler , etc

i was particularly disturbed because directly after the fall of communism was.... guess what????

THE END OF DAYS

all references were to suggest it came from the middle east/death of mabus early in a conflict as... guess what 2??? 7 fiery comets passed overhead

ok maybe this is just bull pooopooo but!!!!

According to Nostradamus

CII, Q62
Mabus will soon die, then will come,
A horrible undoing of people and animals,
At once one will see vengeance,
One hundred powers, thirst, famine, when the comet will pass.

america is amassing troups for a assault on iran/time has run out on iran to shut down his nuclrear prog/iran hs threatened to wipe out isreal/iran is proposing releasing oil by the euro per barrel nest week/comet 73p is passing by within weeks

doesnt it seem that everything is getting kinda out of control,or is it just me getting paranoid.

personally i,m preparing for the worst,

ie stocking up on vodka blue label

Originally posted by AGENT_T
doesnt it seem that everything is getting kinda out of control,or is it just me getting paranoid.

personally i,m preparing for the worst,

ie stocking up on vodka blue label

Indeed it crept up on me a bit quick, I was expecting a couple of years atleast, seems things are in place all of a sudden, it all started this year with Iran, It will end with GOD having his final say that's for sure.

I just hop I get to take my special pants with me.

OK, Agent_T, for you a less mathematical version of it all.

Suppose you have gravity. And suppose you have a really large apple. Now that apple you drop from very far away. But hey, you shoot a BB-gun at it. And the apple falls apart. The apple was travelling at 60 km per second, and your BB made it fall apart with a few meters per second relative to prviouslyt whole apple trajectory. Sooooo, do you think that the gravitational pull of the Earth changes a lot for each of these fragments?? And do you think that the few meters per second makes a lot of difference on top of 60 km/s??

Ok.. umm.. apples and BBs?

What about a better analogy. NASA shoots a satellite at Mars. They use the planets gravity (much smaller than earth's) to slow and capture the satellite. Five times out of eight, or thereabouts, NASA gets it wrong and the satellite crashes into the planet.

What was NASA saying again...?

What does NASA have to do with the above explanation??

That is my explanation! (claiming copyright as we speak :-) )

Originally posted by Escrotumus
I imaged the C fragment lastnight and it is definitely getting brighter.

Awesome. Will we be able to see this comet with the naked eye?

Originally posted by Escrotumus
The image is a bit off in focus but you get the gist

It may be off focus, as you say, but that's a great pic, imho.

Here's hoping for some clear moonless nights as these fragments pass.

impressive, Escrotumus...

I had some problems with my equipment lastnight and didnt realize that focus wasnt right until after the subs were taken unfortunately.... The comet is only a naked eye comet from the darkest of sites and only after the first week in may. Its easily visible now with binocs from a relatively dark site and with an 80mm refractor from suburban skies after 11pm. I may head out again tonight to reimage the things that i was imaging lastnight with the whole focus debacle >:|

Thanks for the compliments!

quote: Originally posted by AGENT_T
doesnt it seem that everything is getting kinda out of control,or is it just me getting paranoid.

personally i,m preparing for the worst,

ie stocking up on vodka blue label

I will be stockin up on the whisky and aftershocks ......


Aye well only how many days to go before we either see it or it hits us