David Levy's Guide to Observing and Discovering Comets

David begins his book in an unsuspecting manner with a quick look back at how comets effected the lives of our ancestors; before the age of telescopes. Briefly, he demonstrates that comets were recognized by not only early scientist, but poets and "fallen princes." His book is lightly peppered with people, events, and places of historical significance; e.g., that Edmond Halley "dropped out" from Oxford and "headed south that same year to the island of St. Helena, the island that, more than a century later, would serve as Napoleon's home after the battle of Waterloo." He takes you on a journey through the discovery of comets (in which some cases, comets turn out to be planets - as was in the case of Uranus, Herschel 1781), the recovery of comets, and he discusses the ardent task of mathematically calculating orbits and estimating returns (it was Encke the "mathematician", not Pons "the astronomer", whose name lives on with the 3 1/3 yr. comet - Comet Encke). He speaks of houses "made of comets." Actually, financed by comets for the honored American astronomer Bernard, who, with 2 months of formal education, paid his bills by discovering comets. You also hear the tales of morale boosting pranks that college fellows play on one another. He continues on through the pain staking task of searching and searching, for hours on end, until after 917 hours and 28 minutes, spread out over 19 years, he discovered a comet. Correction, he co-discovered a comet. It was discovered simultaneously by another American astronomer. Very interesting to hear him tell the story. David touches on systematic comet search techniques, tips on film, pros and cons of CCD (digital imaging and why film is better), the problem of staying focused, and how he breaks the sky down into a grid and methodically examines each point of light; twice! (per night...) How else can one detect *ever so slow-motion movement* of a very distant object? Finally, David chronicles the discovery, predictions, and events leading up to the impact of Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter. Very enjoyable read. P.S. The book has many pictures scattered throughout and has a nice set of color photos at the books center.