which famous event is thought to be a sighting of halleys comet?
462629
12 BC: Star of Bethlehem\n1066: William the Conquerer conquered England, Harold II of England died at the Battle of Hastings.\n1835: birth of Mark Twain\n1910: death of Mark Twain\n\nThere were some more too, I think. I'll add more if I find any.
1080538
A ball of ice in many cases or a rock that has ice and what not breaking off as dust. That is why we can see the trails behind a comet.
441328
(m)\n\nFrom earliest times, humankind has noticed flurries of meteors that seemed to emanate from particular points in the sky at particular times of the year. These flurries, now called meteor showers, are produced by small fragments of cosmic debris entering the earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed. When the number of meteors is large, it is called a meteor storm. Each time a periodic comet swings by the Sun, it produces large amounts of small particles which will eventually spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid "stream". If the Earth's orbit and the comet's orbit intersect at some point, then the Earth will pass through this stream for a few days at roughly the same time each year, producing a meteor shower. The parent bodies (comets) of most known meteor showers have now been identified.\n\nMost meteors seen in meteor showers are caused by particles smaller than a grain of sand. As a result it is very rare to have any meteorites hit the ground during a typical meteor shower.\n\nBecause meteor shower particles are all traveling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all appear to radiate from a single point in the sky to an observer below. This radiant point is caused by the effect of perspective, similar to railroad tracks converging at a single vanishing point on the horizon when viewed from the middle of the tracks.\n\nAny other solar system body with a reasonably transparent atmosphere can also have meteor showers. For instance, Mars is known to have meteor showers, although these will be different than the ones seen on Earth because the different orbits of Mars and Earth will intersect with orbits of comets in different ways. On March 7, 2004, the panoramic camera on Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recorded a streak which is now believed to have been caused by a meteor from a Martian meteor shower associated with comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. A strong display from this shower is expected on December 20, 2007, although it is unlikely that Spirit or Opportunity will still be operational at that time to observe it.
460102
Depends on the size of the comet, many just disintegrate on the atmosphere. A really big one could create:\nShift in the orbit, heat from the explosion, smoke and dust from the explosion covering the Sun. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from shift in magnetic field due to orbit shift. Basically extinction of many forms of life, possibly even human.
621334
I am assuming you mean in "historical times" or otherwise it would have to be the "big bang" that supposedly created the known universe.\n\nThat aside, in 1908 (I think it was) in a remote area of Siberia called Tunguska, a huge meteor, comet, or something, alien craft for all anyone knows entered the atmosphere at such high speed it vaporized well above the ground like an "air burst" bomb.  It leveled hundreds of square miles of forest, set fires, killed all wildlife (and any nomads that may have been there) and was heard over most of the future Soviet Union and much of central Asia.  There are lots of old black and white photos taken by Russian exploration teams sent to find out what happened.  That one gets my vote. Search for "1908 Siberian meteor"
142556
At NASA. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/\n\nThey have a listing for many different cities around the world (click on "sightings by city").
374276
Mars and Saturn, Venus in the evening, and you're in for a real treat clouds permitting. Mercury was at it's greatest Western Elongation only last Sunday a whole 28 degrees West, so very visible in the morning, magnitude 0.41\nDon't forget the Lyrids meteor shower on the 22nd will you.
574370
A sampling of famous astronomers\nAstronomer Contribution \nHipparchus and Ptolemy Determined the positions of about 1,000 bright stars, tried to explain the puzzles of astronomy without refuting only believed geocentric model of universe and classified stars by magnitude. \nAristarchus of Samos First known person to propound the heliocentric model of universe. Attempted to calculate the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon. \nNasir al-Din al-Tusi This Persian astronomer gave the first extant exposition of the whole system of plane and spherical trigonometry. Made very accurate tables of planetary movements and named many stars. Developed the Tusi-couple which resolves linear motion into the sum of two circular motions. He also calculated the value of 51' for the precession of the equinoxes and contributed to construction and usage of astrolabe. \nNicolaus Copernicus First exponent of heliocentrism in modern times. \nTycho Brahe Did develop many important astronomical instruments, and achieved accurate measurments of the heavens by improving scentific methodology and by designing instruments on a large scale. His measurements of the orbit of Mars were very important to the development of astronomy. \nJohannes Kepler Suggested the elliptical orbits of planets, and propounded his Laws of Planetary Motion. \nGalileo Galilei Was the first to use the telescope to observe the sky. Condemned to house arrest for his discoveries by Inquisitional edict, which was lifted 359 years later by Pope John Paul II. \nIsaac Newton Published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), containing the "Newton's laws of motion", which are fundamental to mechanical physics, and which explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Predicted the orbits of the planets. \nSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Extensive work on the internal mechanisms of stars, particularly known for determining the effect of special relativity on stars, including being the first to calculate the Chandrasekhar limit, which he did, without a calculator, on a boat journey. \nHenrietta Swan Leavitt Catalogued Cepheid variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds, in 1912 discovered the relationship between luminosty and periodicity in Cepheids -- leading to Hertzprung's later work. \nEjnar Hertzsprung determined the distance to several Cepheids, when Cepheids were detected in other galaxies such as the Andromeda galaxy, the distance to those galaxies could then be determined. \nEdwin Hubble Discovered the expansion of the universe. (Hubble's Law) The Hubble Orbiting Space Telescope was named in his honor.
902686
For some octagenarians, the comet is a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity, My late father was born in 1904 and saw the 1910 comet as a six year old and he willed himself to live long enough to see it again in 1986, as an 82 year old, and died a happy man, 2 years later.\n\nThere are three possible answers: the comet, the Halley crater on the Moon and the Halley crater on Mars, \n\nInformation on the comet is plentiful. Information on the Mars crater is scant.\n\nThere was also the Halley Armada, sent out to investigate the comet in 1986. If you count objects we have put in space as space objects. If you do, that is a further six objects, though only the Aramada is named after Halley, not the individual probes. So maybe that is a total of 4 not 9,\n\nHALLEY RESEARCH STATION\n\nThere is also a Halley Research Station, located at 75°35′S 26°34′W, on the Brunt Ice Shelf floating on the Weddell Sea in Antarctica which is a British research facility dedicated to the study of the Earth's atmosphere.\n\nMeasurements from Halley led to the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985. \n\nPresumably the Antarctic station is named after Halley because he spent 1676-78 at St Helena, studying and cataloguing the stars in the Southern Hemisphere to complement Flamsteed's work in the Northern Hemisphere. *(In 1679 Halley published Catalogus Stellarum Australium which included details of 341 southern stars. \n\nTHE HALLEY CRATER ON THE MOON\n\nWikipedia states that ...\n\nThe crater has a diameter 36 kilometres and a\ndepth of 2.5 kilometres. \n\nHalley is a lunar impact crater that is intruding into the southern wall of the Hipparchus walled-plain. To the southwest of Halley is the large Albategnius crater, and due east lies the slightly smaller Hind crater.\n\nThe rim of Halley crater is somewhat worn, and a scar in the lunar surface passes through the western rim, forming a valley that runs to the south-southeast, near the rim of Albetagnius. The interior floor of Halley is relatively flat.\n\nTHE HALLEY ARMADA\n\nThe Halley Armada is a group of six space probes sent to examine Comet Halley during its 1986 sojourn through the inner solar system. The armada consisted of one probe from the European Space Agency, two probes that were joint projects between the Soviet Union and France, two probes from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan, and a probe from the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration.\n\nProbes involved (in order of closest approach):\n\nGiotto, the first space probe to get close-up color images of the nucleus of a comet. (ESA) \n\nVega 1, which dropped a balloon probe and lander on Venus before going on to Comet Halley. (USSR/France Intercosmos) \n\nVega 2, which dropped a balloon probe and lander on Venus before going on to Comet Halley. (USSR/France Intercosmos) \n\nSuisei, also known as PLANET-A. (ISAS) \n\nSakigake, Japan's first probe to leave the Earth system, mainly a test of interplanetary mission technology. (ISAS) \n\nInternational Cometary Explorer, originally ISEE-3, was rechristened with a new mission to explore comets. (NASA)\n\nHALLEY'S COMET\n\nI suppose, finally, I should say a few things about the comet. \n\nHalley's Comet was the first to be recognized as periodic. Having perceived, from a study he undertook of comets, that the observed characteristics of the comet of 1682 were nearly the same as those of two comets which had appeared in 1531 (observed by Petrus Apianus) and 1607 (observed by Johannes Kepler in Prague), Halley concluded that all three comets were in fact the same object returning every 75–76 years. \n\nAfter a rough estimate of the perturbations the comet would sustain from the attraction of the planets, he predicted its return for 1757. Halley's prediction of the comet's return proved to be correct, although it was not seen until 25 December 1758 by Johann Georg Palitzsch, a German farmer and amateur astronomer, and did n
796978
Unfortunately, just Saturn.  (See source.)  Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are too closely in line with the Sun this month.  \n\nHowever, Mercury should be visible in the pre-dawn, later this month.\n\nWe just missed the very rare transit of the sun by Mercury on Nov. 8th (I'm kicking myself ... I saw the Venus transit a few years ago through a telescope, and it was wonderful).\n\nAnd don't miss the Leonid meteor shower on Nov. 17.  Unfortunately for me, this year the Leonids peak in the middle of the day in the U.S., but I imagine our European friends would get a good view.
861953
I would try checking the meteorobs mailing list. And perhaps posting about your sighting to the list.\n\nhttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/meteorobs/\n\nThere's also a fireball log here:\n\nhttp://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball/fireball_log2006.html\n\nUpdate: Turns out you weren't alone. There's a bunch of sightings posted in the fireball log I posted above as well as an update that was posted to spaceweather.com\n\n"On Nov. 28th, in a split-second of total coincidence, a meteoroid the same size as the Lunar Leonid plunged to Earth over the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. What happened? Nothing. It disintegrated harmlessly in the atmosphere. A local security camera captured this movie of the beautiful fireball."\n\nAnd here's the movie they are referring to:\n\nhttp://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/swpod2006/03dec06/huntsville.asf
782817
There are lots of meteor shower Web sites out there, but the very best Web site for getting your directions straight and seeing some awesome satellites (including the International Space Station quite often) is called Heavens Above.  Just plug in any location for any time and it will give you superb constellation, planet and satellite path maps.  Note: If you print out the maps, be sure to hold them above you because the printout is aligned so that you hold it above you as you're looking up at the stars at the same time.  Superb data presented in a simple and fun format.
1131381
Are you talking about the "Iron Mistress"?\nLegend has it that it was made out of a falling star, or as more commonly known as a meteor.
491563
Space Oddity, Golden Years, or Fame
434413
falling star means comet.
192275
The next time Haley's comet will pass by earth will be in 2061. We see Haley's every 76 years.\n\n1066- First appearance of Haley's comet(it was named much later)\n\nSubesequent sightings:\n1471, 1607, 1682\n\n1785 -  Haley's Comet appears. Haley's comet is named after English astronomer Edmond Haley who 'discovered' it and predicts when it will pass us again.\n\nThe last time Haley's passed is was in 1986.  It was rather far away and not a spectacular site to see. I highly doubt that I will live long enough to see its next passing.
823944
The basic method is to observe its position over several nights.  The subsequent motion of the comet against the background stars is then fitted to a curve that describes the orbit.  The difficulty with this method is that a elliptical orbit can resemble a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit at certain sections of the orbit.  In the early days of astronomical observations, this closeness made it difficult to determine if a comet was in a closed, periodic orbit or whether it would be on an escape path from the Solar System.