Fascinating story, Jim! Thanks (from a very amateur
astronomer....)
The link, however, gave me a 400 error message, when I
clicked on it.
~Trisha "Lightning"
On Thu, 11 April 2002, Jim Scotti wrote
>
> Wow, that was a fun night at the telescope! It was
the night of March 25-26,
> 1993 and I think it was around dinner time that David
Levy called me from
> Palomar about their new comet suspect. They
described it and it's position
> motion and brightness and I warned them that the
cloudy weather that was on
> top of them was going to make for an uncertain night,
but that I'd be happy
> to confirm their object. But I also caused them some
concern by asking a few
> questions, for example, their image was elongated in
a way that pointed right
> straight back towards Jupiter, just 4 degrees away on
the sky (about 8 times
> the diameter of the moon) and the object moved almost
exactly like Jupiter on
> the sky, so I was worried it might be an optical
reflection in the telescope
> of Jupiter. It was approaching midnight when David
called me back about the
> confirmation & I had just started the 2nd images of
the comet, having just
> been jolted through the ceiling by seeing it about 10
or 15 minutes earlier
> for the first time. The image I had seen appeared to
me as follows. As the
> image read out of the CCD detector on the telescope,
I saw it appear from the
> west. Having confirmed a number of comets over the
years and having observed
> nearly 100 of them at that time, I knew what comets
looked like & what to
> expect, but as comets have always reminded me, one
should never forget that
> they can do some very interesting things. I had seen
comets with two tails
> and comets that had split into multiple pieces
before, but all of that did
> not prepare me for the image that was in the next
star field! First, there
> was what appeared to be a tail on my screen. At that
point, I knew their
> comet was no telescope reflection, but was real.
Then as more of the image
> appeared, there was a second tail (in the following
image, the bottom of this
> image appeared first on my screen). I thought -
cool, nice comet! Then the
> first nucleus appeared & to me it just looked like a
normal, but pretty neat
> comet. Then the next bit of the image appeared - it
contained a whole string
> of comet nuclei! I think it was that moment that my
jaw dropped to the floor
> in amazement. And finally, the trail on the other
side of the string
> appeared. Here is a URL with an image I took a
couple nights later that
> shows you what I saw that night:
>
>
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/spacewatch/Photos/p_sl9_30.jpg
>
> So when David called me on the phone a few minutes
later, I was obviously
> very excited. I told him what I saw & talked to Gene
Shoemaker as well. We
> even talked about how we figured that the comet must
have passed very close
> to Jupiter recently and have been broken up by that
close passage, but we had
> no idea of the show we were in store for. If someone
had suggested that
> night that the comet was orbiting Jupiter and would
crash into the planet in
> 14 months time, I would have laughed them off the
mountain!
>
> BTW, I did not coin the term "String of Pearls", I
think that was Dave Jewitt
> or Jane Luu who observed it a few nights later from
Hawaii. I was calling it
> a train of nuclei, though. On the discovery
announcment, I described the
> string of nuclei as "a long narrow train" with "at
least 5 discernible
> condenstations" visible within the train. It was
called comet Shoemaker-Levy
> right away and later when found to be at least in
orbit around the sun (but
> not certainly Jupiter), it was called Periodic comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 (or S-L
> 9) since it was the 9th short period comet found by
the Shoemakers and David
> Levy.
>
> Jim.
>
> On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, Jim Stamm wrote:
>
> > Jim Scotti wrote on 4/10/02 8:38 AM :
> >
> > >Between Near Earth Asteroids and comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 (you may remember the
> > >comet that broke up while orbiting Jupiter and
crashed into the planet in
> > >July 1994).
> >
> > What we weren't told (except by David Levy, the
discoverer himself) was
> > that Jim was actually the first person to see S-M 9
as a multiple object
> > (I think he used the term "string of pearls").
David called Jim at the
> > observatory on the night of discovery because S-M 9
looked so strange to
> > the team of discoverers, and Jim visually confirmed
what was later to
> > become the most fantastic solar system event in
human history.
> >
> > Have I gotten this all correct Jim?
> >
> > -Jim
> >
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> >
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> > http://www.azgeocaching.com
> >
>
> Jim Scotti
> Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu
> University of Arizona
> Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/
>
>
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