9fans archive / 1996 / 02 / 88 /    prev next

From: Luther Huffman, Jr. lutherh@inf...
Subject: Events of astral significance
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 11:58:17 -0500

On Mon, 26 Feb 1996 10:31:39 -0500, Nigel Roles wrote:

>I note that comet Hyakutake will pass Bootes around 23rd March. What 
>does this signify for the future of Plan 9?
A patch to astro(7). I'll post a new comet.c patch Real Soon Now that
includes orbital elements for both C/1996 B2 (Hyakutaki) and C/1995 O1
(Hale-Bopp). Hale-Bopp will brighten at the beginning of 1997 and
should put on a spectacular show (supposedly the best in 50 years, but
I'm not holding my breath. I've still got a Comet Kohoutek poster).
   I've already  patched comet.c on my system but I'm not happy. The
problem is that I'm sure the orbital elements I have are incorrect and
I have to find a *correct* eccentricity value.
   Also note that astro doesn't give positions, just the time a comet
rises and sets so don't get your expectations up. =:-(
   To get daily positions and other goodies, try
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/whats_visible.html

Luther