Instructify

If you’re looking for a way to make the distant abstractions of science more real for your students, consider suggesting they take a look at Comet Holmes. This cosmic traveler burst into our relatively quiet earthly neighborhood with an unexpected brightening on October 24th, and will continue on a curved path through the constellation Perseus through March.

In late November it was plainly visible to the unaided eye even in bright urban skies. It has since dimmed to the point where it is probably no longer visible without binoculars, though it currently appears larger than the full moon in the night sky as a sort of faint fuzzball. This comet has a history of suddenly brightening, so it may again become visible without optical aid as it makes its way through Perseus over the next several months. You may want to acquaint yourself with the portions of the sky around the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus. That way, you can look in that direction on clear evenings to see if it has flared up so that you can tell your students how to see it for themselves.

In spite of the lack of media attention given to Comet Holmes, plainly visible comets are relatively uncommon events in our neck of the celestial woods and are therefore worth sharing and talking about. If nothing else, the sudden appearance of a comet can give us a sense of what Galileo felt when he first realized that the heavens were not permanent and unchanging, and how this jarring notion helped give birth to modern science. They also give us pause to turn off the machinery, to get outside, to look outward and to contemplate (as our electricity-free ancestors did nearly every night) our place in the universe, which is not a bad way to spend an evening. -DAN KELO

See Comet Holmes Tonight! via Sky and Telescope
Comet Holmes via Wikipedia