Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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200 Years Ago - A Prediction of a Deadly Comet Impact

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Screenshot of an old newspaper. COMETS. It is now certain that the same comet has appeared in our planetary system in the years 1786, 1795, 1801, 1805, 1818, and 1825. It appears that in its course it never passes the orbit of Jupiter. The period of its revolution ( which is the shortest known) very little exceeds three years and a quarter ; and its mean distance from the sun is not more than twice that of the earth. It seems to be especially connected with the system in which our globe is placed, and crosses our orbit more than sixty times in a century. M. Olbers, the celebrated astronomer of Bremen, who has bestowed much attention on this comet, has been lately occupied in calculating the the possibility of its influence on the destinies of our globe. He finds that in 83,000 years this comet will approach the earth as nearly as the moon; and that in 4,000,000 of years it will come to within a distance of 7700 geographical miles; the consequence of which will be ( if its attraction be equal to that of the earth) the elevation of the waters of the ocean13,000 feet; that is to say, above the tops of all the European mountains, except Mont- Blanc. The inhabitants of the Andes and of the Kimlaya mountains alone will escape this second deluge ; but they will not benefit by their good fortune more than 210,000,000 years, for it is probable that, at the expiration of that time, our globe, standing right in the way of the comet, will receive a shock severe enough to insure its utter. destruction.— This is very alarming !

While digging though some old journals in a fruitless side-quest, I came across this delightful description of what I think is the Comet Encke. It is quite an astonishing prediction, and the last line is perfection. In 1926, several journals and almanacs syndicated a column discussing this comet. The above is from The New Jerusalem magazine and theological inspector which has added "This is…

Simplifying SETI

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A cheap telescope.

SETI is the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. They use massive radio-telescopes to search the sky for signs of intelligent life. But the sky is big. Where should we point the telescopes to improve our chances of detecting a signal? Rather than point at random stars, or promising looking constellations, I propose a more scientific approach: Find a planet where the length of the year…

Photographing The Moon With A Phone*

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*And a telescope.... The photo on the left is me just pointing my Galaxy Note II at the sky - the one on the right uses the same phone, but with a bit more kit... Last year, I bought myself a small telescope as a birthday present. I wanted to use it to take photos of the moon. I like the moon. The problem is that putting the phone up to the lens of the scope is really tricky to align. Which …

The Moon

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I've always been a bit obsessed with space. I think all true geeks are. It was probably Star Wars that set off my star lust. For the last few years, I've been pondering getting a telescope. Like many of my plans, it sat in the back of my head waiting for me to get off my lazy arse and do something about it. I halfheartedly researched telescopes online, glanced at them occaisionally in the shops, …