Word: halley
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...would-be astronomers plunk down anywhere from $100 to $8,500 per instrument. Says Kim Davey of Celestron International, an optical-instruments firm in Torrance, Calif.: "The comet is an excuse for people to buy the telescope they've always wanted." American Express is offering a $799 telescope "for Halley's comet and beyond," which can be paid for in monthly installments of $39.95. Burton Rubin, who made a fortune in the '70s on his E-Z Wider cigarette-rolling papers, hopes for a repeat performance from his $200 Halleyscope, a wide-angle telescope that comes equipped with a tripod...
Even the fanciest equipment will not afford northern skygazers the view they might have in southern latitudes. For those who want a closer look, travel agencies offer Halley's excursions to such distant sites as Arequipa, Peru; Botswana, Africa; the Amazon; and Sydney, Australia, at prices ranging from $1,400 to $29,000. Several of the tours feature star speakers: a Royal Viking Line cruise with Carl Sagan on March 26 has been sold out for six months. Other tour guides include a top NASA scientist and a physics professor from San Diego State University. "Our cruise," insists Richard Doolittle...
Scientists are afraid that the relentless Halley's mania is bound to result in disappointment. At its closest, in March, the comet will still be 40 million miles away. Halley's may appear to stretch the length of the Big Dipper but probably will not be as bright. Scientists cannot predict the luminosity because each time the comet whips past the sun, it sheds varying amounts of the ice and dust that form its glowing tail. "All this hype is making people think they're going to see a massive apparition that will scare dogs and old ladies," says...
...will observe from the ground but because of the five space probes launched since last year by Europe, Japan and the Soviet Union. The European craft will approach to within 300 miles of the comet's nucleus. A March mission of the space shuttle will be dedicated entirely to Halley's experiments. A battery of cameras, telescopes and mass spectrometers will analyze the comet's 30 million-to-70 million-mile tail and will seek to probe its mysterious, icy heart, which may hold clues to the origin of the solar system. It is that view which will be truly...
...least, from left field. But in each book, Carkeet demonstrated a gift for devising oddball characters and situations, then persuading the reader that they were real. In his third novel, I Been There Before, Carkeet's puckish fantasy finds Mark Twain, who was born during the 1835 appearance of Halley's comet and who died during its return in 1910, brought back to life once more by the comet's visit in 1985. From there the implausibilities mount. Twain engages in time travel. When events do not turn out as he likes, he causes whole swatches of his life...