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Page |
Article |
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Special
Issue: Comets |
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14 |
Letter From the ASP President, by Bruce
W. Carney
Comets are no longer portents
of doom. But they are, for many children, presages of a lifelong
interest in science. |
|
15 |
Promethean Ice, by Christopher P. McKay
Comets and asteroids take life.
Just ask the dinosaurs. But they have also given life -- by
providing Earth with water and organic materials and maybe,
just maybe, by bringing the first living thing to Earth from
afar. |
|
19 |
Comets and the Public, by Heidi B.
Hammel
Astronomers seem almost desperate
for a Great Comet, anointing Hyakutake and now Hale-Bopp as
The Ones. Are they setting the public, and themselves, up for
a fall? |
|
22 |
Comets Now and Then, by Kevin K. Yau
In the era of space telescopes
and atomic clocks, we have no need for ancient records on dusty
manuscripts, stone tablets, and bone fragments, right? It turns
out that those ancient records are the key to many fields of
modern science, and nowhere more so than in the study of comets.
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|
26 |
The Keeper of the List, by Brian G.
Marsden and Gareth V. Williams
Seven thousand two hundred twelve
asteroids have been catalogued as of Oct. 1, 1996. As professional
observers redouble their searches for new ones, and as ever
more amateurs join the hunt, the list of discoveries is growing
exponentially -- along with the task of keeping track of all
those objects. |
|
29 |
A
Blindman's Buff Through Astronomy, by Daniel B. Caton
Astronomy is getting onto the
front pages fairly regularly these days; indeed, sometimes it
seems to be the only good news. The media coverage is an ideal
opportunity for teachers to discuss science as it really happens
-- and to show students how learning can continue long after
they have closed their textbooks for the last time. |
|
35 |
Index to Volume 25 |
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Departments
|
|
2 |
Editorial,
by George Musser |
|
4 |
Letters to the Editor |
|
5 |
Society News |
|
6 |
World
Beat: Poland, by Cecylia
Iwaniszewska
Instead of the discus, balance
beam, and sappy television coverage, the contestants in the
Polish Astronomical Olympiad face off against occultation timing,
astrophotography, and astrophysical calculations. |
|
7 |
Echoes of the Past, by Katherine Bracher
The ancient Greeks invented the
word comet, yet they seem to have done little comet-viewing.
|
|
8 |
Newswire, by Leo P. Connolly |
|
9 |
Black Holes to Blackboards, by Jeffrey
F. Lockwood
Hey! What are these students doing
having fun? Maybe they're learning. |
|
10 |
Guest
Observer, by James C.
White II
Observing comets. This month's
column also features a report on Venus from German amateur Detlev
Niechoy. |
|
12 |
Point, by Alan W. Harris
Can we defend Earth against impacts
by comets and small asteroids? |
|
C-1 |
SkyChart and SkyTalk, by Robert A.
Garfinkle |
|
32 |
Book Review 1, by James Jay Klavetter
The Great Comet Crash
by John R. Spencer and Jacqueline Mitton. Impact Jupiter
by David H. Levy. Rocks From Space by O. Richard
Norton. Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets by
Duncan Steel. Rain of Iron and Ice by John S. Lewis.
|
|
34 |
Book Review 2, by John E. Isles
An Observer's Guide to Comet
Hale- Bopp by Don Machholz. The Comet Hale-Bopp
Book by Thomas Hockey. Everybody's Comet
by Alan Hale. |
