Telescopic observations overhead by yours truly the midnight of Nov. 8 left a stunning impression of an orb-like, green-grey ornament featuring a distinct inner zone of high concentrated brightness filling the entire field of the eyepiece! Starlight burned throughout the gauze-like cometary coma filling this observer with a sense of awe unmatched in 40 years or so at the end of a telescope. The following two weeks saw the comet expanding its shell of dust and vapor, brightening slightly, and remaining anchored near the star Mirfak in Perseus. At last glimpse before the storms of November and brightening moonlight, comet Holmes had faded and expanded sublimely revealing to binoculars a ghostly circular glow in the evening sky easy enough to cover up with your small fingertip. All County cosmic cadets need little encouragement to bundle up through December, binoculars in hand, to tour skyward about a handspan beneath the familiar stars of Cassieopia, mythical Queen of Ethiopia almost overhead.
Those are the facts, folks. But the lingering relection within me compels considerable elaboration.
Comet Holmes’s initial discovery in 1892 by an English astronomy enthusiast entered the conscience of European civilization at a time of growing confidence in progress and technology. Neither world wars, nor Great Depression, nor Holocaust, nor Hiroshima, nor the tragic sinking of the Titanic had entered our burden of soul. Astronomy could then remain a restrained yet passionate pursuit of the privileged few from the comfort of garden patios, submerged within a proper Christian conscience and studied from a mechanical point of view. Now 115 years later, this same chunk of porous, icy stuff returns to the stimulated retinae of millions who care to look. And what a changed perspective, my dear Holmes! Today 7 billion entitled citizens of planet Earth face a host of contention and complexity in soul, body, and spirit to challenge the bravest hearts. But the impulse in pursuit of celestial wonder remains real and available. As you and I pursue Holmes, we really are in pursuit of ourselves and the sacred chain which binds us to the unseen witness of heritage and heart.
As a boy, the return of a comet, like Holmes, could conjure up images of the extraterrestrial which only TV and movies seemed to provide comprehension. While Godzilla tore through Tokyo’s urban sprawl and Mothra flapped tidally its own form of devastation upon Asia, the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits revealed pre-9/11 terror and suspense from the skies. Even Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock would ask Scotty to “beam them up” at the Return of the Blob! I remember no restraint placed upon my imagination in the excitement of a sky wonder, either eclipse or comet or meteor shower.
And now the Blob really returns to the night sky! And when our childhood fears and thrills must return to reality, oh say what can we see and say at the night’s darkling light? Here’s my suggestion: let us permit this celestial stranger to kick-start our sense of memory and child-like wonder. The return of the blob tugs at us to return again to the land of our souls where all things become new. Astronomy remains empowered to give us the taste of the sublime, whereby Sun, Moon, and star take their appropriate place of honor. And just perhaps, just perhaps in relearning to disengage, even momentarily, all of our highly praised steamlining, we can recover the reverence due our own planet before commercial, industrial, and political rapaciousness takes all of us one step beyond.
May your days and especially nights be merry and bright this 2007-08 holiday season. Take the time to plunge upwards for your sake, your children’s sake, and your planet’s survival. And if your see Holmes, send my regards to Watson!
Mr. “B” blows his horn from the Francis Malcom Science Center station. Please consider attending “The Christmas Star” performance from the comfort of the northernmost planetarium in the continental United States, Saturday, Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. For information, inspiration, and reservation please call the Science Center @ 207-488-5451.
Aroostook skies: The return of the blob
Highly placed sources from the skywatching community announced in late October the magnificent outpouring of debris from Comet Holmes magnifying this ordinarily faint solar system sensation by a factor of one million. Alerts worldwide revealed the appearance of a superb binocular comet just discernible by the unaided eye hiding amongst the stars of heroic Perseus ideally placed in high northeastern skies for County folk.
