Observing Meteors, Comets, Supernovae and other Transient Phenomena

Many books cover permanent astronomical objects, but few consider transient, out-of-the-ordinary astronomical phenomena. This book covers a wide range of topics, from the partly-predictable to the totally unpredictable. At one end: of the scale, it gives advice on the best ways to observe meteors, and at the other end:, it describes the best methods for undertaking painstaking searches for new comets and supernovae. The book also includes material about phenomena that occur in the lower atmosphere, such as "ozone eaters", nacreous clouds, and solar and lunar halos.

Inhalt

1 Introduction.- 2 Meteors.- 2.1 The Leonids: A Storm Coming?.- 2.1.1 The Quiet-time Leonids, 1970-1993.- 2.1.2 On the Rise: 1994-1996.- 2.1.3 The Possible Storm Years: 1997-2000.- 2.1.4 Observing the Leonids.- 2.2 The Perseids: The Unexpected Rise of "Old Faithful".- 2.3 Other Showers in Outburst.- 2.4 Fireballs.- 3 Aurorae and other Atmospheric Phenomena.- 3.1 Auroral Storms.- 3.1.1 The Causes of Auroral Activity.- 3.1.2 Auroral Substorms.- 3.1.3 Geomagnetic Storms.- 3.1.4 Observing the Aurora.- 3.2 Noctilucent Clouds.- 3.2.1 Observing Noctilucent Clouds.- 3.3 Synthetic Atmospheric Phenomena.- 4 The Sun.- 4.1 Observing the Sun in White Light.- 4.2 Monochromatic-light Observations: The Sun in Hydrogen-alpha.- 4.3 Solar Eclipses.- 5 The Moon.- 5.1 Transient Lunar Phenomena.- 5.2 Lunar Occultations.- 5.2.1 Observing Occultations.- 5.2.2 Grazing Occultations.- 5.2.3 Electronic Observing.- 5.3 Lunar Eclipses.- 6 The Planets.- 6.1 Venus.- 6.1.1 Transits of Mercury and Venus.- 6.2 Mars.- 6.3 Jupiter.- 6.3.1 The Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impacts of 1994 July.- 6.4 Saturn.- 6.5 Planetary Occultations.- 7 Small Bodies of the Solar System.- 7.1 Asteroids.- 7.1.1 Asteroid Occultations.- 7.2 The Galilean Satellites of Jupiter.- 7.2.1 Mutual Phenomena of Jupiter's Satellites.- 7.3 Saturn's Satellites.- 7.3.1 The Occultation of 28 Sagittarii by Titan.- 8 Comets.- 8.1 The Nature and Origin of Comets.- 8.2 Comet Discoveries.- 8.3 Observing Comets.- 8.3.1 Comet Ephemerides.- 8.3.2 Comet Magnitudes.- 8.3.3 Drawings: Coma and Tail Measurements.- 8.4 Comets in Outburst.- 8.5 Ion-tail Disconnections.- 8.6 The Great Comets of 1996 and 1997.- 8.6.1 Hale-Bopp in 1995.- 8.6.2 Hyakutake.- 8.6.3 Hale-Bopp at Its Best.- 9 Variable Stars.- 9.1 Eclipsing Binaries.- 9.2 Cataclysmic Variables.- 9.3 Recurrent Novae.- 9.4 R Coronae Borealis Stars.- 10 Novae and Supernovae.- 10.1 Novae.- 10.1.1 Observing Novae.- 10.1.2 Visual Nova Patrols.- 10.1.3 Photographic Nova Patrols.- 10.2 Supernovae.- 10.2.1 Visual Searches.- 10.2.2 Photographic and CCD Searches.- 11 Information Sources.- 11.1 Atlases.- 11.2 Catalogues.- 11.3 Ephemerides, Annual Handbooks and News Sources.- 11.4 Software.- 11.5 The Internet.