alexandersurkov1
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
Jean-Louis Pons (1761-1831) was a French astronomer, who went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time. In today's world, comets are routinely found when they are far out in space, beyond the ability of being picked up by human eyes, but are caught using robotic cameras attached to large telescopes either here on Earth or from satellites out in space.
In contrast, Pons made most of his discoveries using telescopes and lenses of his own design; his "Grand Chercheur" ("Great Seeker") was an instrument with a large aperture and short focal length, similar to telescopes that our modern-day amateurs would refer to as a "comet seeker." Pons is noted today for visually discovering 37 comets (still a record) from 1801 to 1827.
One of those discoveries came on July 12, 1812. When first sighted, Pons described it as "a shapeless object with no apparent tail," but over the next month, the comet became bright enough to be dimly visible to the naked eye. On Aug. 15 that year, it reached its peak brightness at fourth magnitude (Magnitude indicates an object's degree of brightness. The lower the figure of magnitude, the brighter the object.) The new comet also possessed a split tail measuring approximately three degrees.
Orbital calculations suggested that comet Pons was periodic, taking somewhere between 65 and 75 years to circle the sun.
On Sept. 2, 1883, British-born American comet observer William R. Brooks (1844-1921) accidently found it. Like Pons, Brooks was a prolific discoverer of comets. In fact, his total of 27 visual discoveries is second only to Pons. Not until the first orbital calculations of Brooks' discovery was made, was it realized that this comet and the comet found by Pons of 1812 were one of the same. So, this comet now bears the surnames of both observers.
With an orbital period of roughly 71 years, comet Pons-Brooks is considered to be a "Halley-type" comet, that is, a comet with an orbital period between 20 and 200 years, often appearing only once or twice within one's lifetime. Other comets with a similar orbital period include 13P/Olbers, 23P/Brosen-Metcalf and the most famous of all, 1P/Halley. Because it was the twelfth comet to have a definitive orbital period calculated, it is cataloged today as 12P/Pons-Brooks.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
Jean-Louis Pons (1761-1831) was a French astronomer, who went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time. In today's world, comets are routinely found when they are far out in space, beyond the ability of being picked up by human eyes, but are caught using robotic cameras attached to large telescopes either here on Earth or from satellites out in space.
In contrast, Pons made most of his discoveries using telescopes and lenses of his own design; his "Grand Chercheur" ("Great Seeker") was an instrument with a large aperture and short focal length, similar to telescopes that our modern-day amateurs would refer to as a "comet seeker." Pons is noted today for visually discovering 37 comets (still a record) from 1801 to 1827.
One of those discoveries came on July 12, 1812. When first sighted, Pons described it as "a shapeless object with no apparent tail," but over the next month, the comet became bright enough to be dimly visible to the naked eye. On Aug. 15 that year, it reached its peak brightness at fourth magnitude (Magnitude indicates an object's degree of brightness. The lower the figure of magnitude, the brighter the object.) The new comet also possessed a split tail measuring approximately three degrees.
Orbital calculations suggested that comet Pons was periodic, taking somewhere between 65 and 75 years to circle the sun.
On Sept. 2, 1883, British-born American comet observer William R. Brooks (1844-1921) accidently found it. Like Pons, Brooks was a prolific discoverer of comets. In fact, his total of 27 visual discoveries is second only to Pons. Not until the first orbital calculations of Brooks' discovery was made, was it realized that this comet and the comet found by Pons of 1812 were one of the same. So, this comet now bears the surnames of both observers.
With an orbital period of roughly 71 years, comet Pons-Brooks is considered to be a "Halley-type" comet, that is, a comet with an orbital period between 20 and 200 years, often appearing only once or twice within one's lifetime. Other comets with a similar orbital period include 13P/Olbers, 23P/Brosen-Metcalf and the most famous of all, 1P/Halley. Because it was the twelfth comet to have a definitive orbital period calculated, it is cataloged today as 12P/Pons-Brooks.