The brighter comets of 2006

A report of the Comet Section. Director (1990 − 2015): J. D. Shanklin. This report describes and analyses observations of the brighter or more interesting comets discovered or at perihelion during 2006, concentrating on those with reported visual observations. Magnitude parameters are given for all comets with observations.

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David Elijah Packer: cluster variables, meteors and the solar corona

David Elijah Packer (1862-1936), a librarian by profession, was an enthusiastic amateur astronomer who observed from London and Birmingham. He observed variable stars, meteors and nebulae, on one occasion reporting a brightening in the nucleus of the galaxy M77. However, his remarkable claims in 1896 that he had photographed the solar corona in daylight were soon shown to be flawed.

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