back to article Astronomers scramble for obs on new comet

It's too early to be certain, but with confirmation of a new, possibly near-Earth comet slated for a pass in early January 2015, sky-watchers will be working hard to calculate just how close it's going to come. The new object, C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), is the fifth discovered by Australian amateur Terry Lovejoy. As Universe Today …

  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    Amateur by title only

    Well done that man.

  2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    Well done Terry!!

    I spotted one of his previous finds through binoculars, very nice one, which keot us amateurs entertained for weeks and even months. I see from the data it is too far south for us northern observers to spot it yet (and too faint to be visible in my scope), but as it swings round the sun it may become visible here

    Good on ya, mate!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    JPL Small-Body Database Browser

    Yuck! NASA's Orbit Diagram requires Java to be installed.

    1. DJV Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Java

      And, double yuck, you need to jump through several hoops to get the damn thing to display its non-aliased blocky mess! Having done so, I assure you it's not worth the effort!

  4. dotdavid

    The new object, C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), is the fifth discovered by Australian amateur Terry Lovejoy

    Does that mean there are five comets called Lovejoy?

    Did he get the opportunity to pick the name for any of them? I would have picked Iain M Banks Culture warships as a naming strategy.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      Nope: te IAU has a standard naming scheme for comets: Fairly boring C/ for non-periodic comet P/ for periodic, followed by year of discovery, a letter indicating the half-month in which it was discovered, followed by a number indicating the order of discovery. Prefix X/ is used for comets without reliable orbits, and D/ indicates a comet that has broken up. This boring designation is followed by the names of the discoverer(s) (usually no more than two or three.

  5. e^iπ+1=0

    Linguine

    Please use the correct El Reg units to measure distance etc. Linguine in this case I believe.

  6. expython

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