The Ulysses Comet Watch Network
has as its main goal to gather cometary data during times of
polar passage by the Ulysses spacecraft. If successful, the
comets studied could be used as indicators of high-latitude solar
winds.
The Network was modeled after
the very successful International Halley Watch observation
networks, which operated during 1985 and 1986 gathering thousands
of Halley images. For the Ulysses Comet Watch, two components
were proposed: a bright comet network of both amateurs and
professionals, doing work similar to the Halley watch effort; and
a faint comet group consisting of professional observatories and
technically advanced amateurs.
The Network was established in
late 1992, and a request for participation was published in
Sky & Telescope magazine. To date, more than 250 observers
from around the world have volunteered for the network. Currently,
they are kept informed of upcoming comets through two vehicles:
the Ulysses Comet Watch Newsletter (of which ten have been sent
to date), and via an E-mail distribution list. This Website is
the latest addition to the Ulysses Comet Watch outreach
efforts.
The Network's approach has been
to gather data on appropriate comets, with an eye toward eventual
data reduction and correlation with relevant Ulysses data, and
finally publication.
Because of the unique orbit
Ulysses is following, several important criteria have been
established for network observations. First, bright comets
(total magnitude greater than 6) are most desirable. Second, the
major observation periods are limited to times when a comet is
with 2 AU of the sun and 20 degrees latitude of the
spacecraft.
The following comets have been observed by
the network: Borrelly, D'Arrest, Encke, Honda-Mrkos-Padjuakova, Mueller,
Pons-Winnecke, Tempel 2, Tuttle, Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, Hyakutake, and de
Vico.
The comet under observation now is Hale-Bopp, although we are asking
observers to try for the difficult-to-observe Machholz 1. Observers have
sent in more than 200 observations since the network was formed.
Join the Ulysses Comet
Watch. Comet Images from Watch
Members.