Comments on: The Top 5 Astronomical Events to Witness Before You Die

By: billy

billy — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:50:30 +0000

i would love to know if anybody witnessed halley’s comet during the lunar eclipse . i did and it was BEYOND GREAT. south island new zealand.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 14:00:31 +0000

I would definitely want to witness the Halley’s Comet. The Aurora looks so beautiful.

By: caseywollberg

caseywollberg — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 12:12:16 +0000

“Nobody has forgotten to look at the sky, were all being hammered by chemicals to make us more apathetic while our night sky dissapears over a thick blanket of barium and other metals so we all wont know whats in store for us”

I hear tin foil hats block the chemicals though. Have you tried that?

By: NASA Lies

NASA Lies — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:59:35 +0000

I got to see 2 explosions in the sky….Challenger and Columbia,

By: Jones

Jones — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:15:09 +0000

Beautiful red moon. The red moon was often used as an omen for harvest or impending death, I wonder if it’s still held in firm belief in some parts of Africa. Either way, hoping I can get there in June.

By: Kirrer

Kirrer — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:09:58 +0000

… I live a place where we have Northern Lights throughout the whole winter – at least once a week. The city is nicknamed “Nordlysbyen”, which literally means “NorthernLightTown”. I honestly didn’t know that the Northern Light is that popular. There’s lots of stories about the Northern Light that I think comes from the old beliefs of the Sami people. Grown-ups are likely to tell you to not whistle when you can see the Northern Lights, because the light is supposed to kidnap children if you do.

… And of course we try to get tourists to come, based on the desire to see the Northern Lights. It’s not like we have any other interesting things here (except for fishing salmon in the river and watching the midnight sun in the summer).

By: Paul Montgomery

Paul Montgomery — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:12:37 +0000

I have gotten see two fireballs explode in the sky now. Both were amazing, but the first one was the best. I was driving down the interstate in Virginia at around 1 am when it came by and exploded in front of me. The flash was like a giant camera flash bright enough so that I could see the shadows of mountain peaks against another ridge of mountains. There were few other cars on the road and they did nothing to indicate they saw the fireball come by. Nothing was in the news the next day and I wonder if it was ever documented.

The second and smaller fireball was also in the early morning hours on a interstate in Tenn. It was a smaller version of the first one, but my wife and daughter also got to see that one. I don’t know if I have just been lucky or if someone’s odds of seeing more than one is high should they log a lot of nighttime driving hours. Now I almost expect to see another, but know that is unlikely. BTW, I am 52 now, so still have many years left to catch another one. One observation, these fireballs are traveling much slower than normal shooting stars you see at night. Both looked to be traveling a little faster than the speed of a satellite overhead and had lots of pieces coming off of them like the sparkles on fireworks.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:19:00 +0000

The problem I see with this article is that the picture of Comet Halley above is actually a picture of Comet Hale Bopp instead. Comet Halley, while famous, is not that exciting to look at. @ Graham, Betelgeuse is expected to go supernova yes however, it is due some time in the next 100,000 years. As for it not happening in 2011, it is highly unlikely it will even occur before your great great grandchildren’s ghosts have settled down and raised a family.

By: Linda Smith

Linda Smith — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:01:57 +0000

“Welles writes on behalf of AlaskaTourJobs.com, a leading provider of summer jobs in Alaska, which is a perfect place to go stargazing!”

Having lived in AK for many years, I can officially say that THERE ARE NO STARS IN THE SUMMER. So I’d guess that star gazing in Alaska would need to be accompanied by some seriously thermal insulated winter gear…we saw the best light shows and auroras when it was -20 to -70…so bundle up and don’t count on seeing any stars much at all between May and September!

By: Karl Johnson

Karl Johnson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:14:17 +0000

Halley’s Comet is not “the only comet that can potentially appear twice in one human lifetime”. There are over 270 comets know as Jupiter types which have periods less than 20 years, and plenty of others with periods less than Halley’s Comet.