[BAA Comets] Comet Section meeting

Tue Mar 12 14:32:58 GMT 2013

Hello Amar,
I am pleased that you have posted to our discussion list and I am sure that you are delighted to 
read Richard Miles's response. As one of the meeting organisers I can tell you that should you be 
able to attend, then of course time would be given to you to let our members know about your Comet 
hunters biography project. I am sure that you will be given a warm welcome and these will be people 
attending who may be able to provide you with information. You will need to organise your BAA and 
RAS library visits well in advance to allow you to get the maximum benefit from you visits there. 
The RAS library in particular is has huge number of volumes and you will not be able to see all you 
want in one day.So let us know if you can attend our meeting at Northampton on May 18 and we will 
look forward to seeing you on the day.
Best wishes
Denis Buczynski
Secretary Comet Section
British Astronomical Association.

Ps one final point, and one that have not seen in your list of UK discoverers is a certain Robert 
McNaught. The worlds most prolific comet discoverer ( with another recent discovery C/2013E1 to his 
name). He is certainly British, originating from Ayrshire in Scotland. Perhaps you have included him 
in the Australian list?

-----Original Message----- 
From: amar sharma
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 11:22 PM
To: BAA Comets discussion list
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] Comet Section meeting

Hello BAA comet members,

Please excuse me for the long email, however it touches upon everything intended.

This is Amar Sharma (29) from India; Her foremost active comet-eer from 10 years now, with an 
in-born inclination to literally everything about comets (very unnatural within this Country). I 
have not been making formal magnitude estimates yet.

I am up with a big project which pertains comets, I have been in touch with Denis B. who knows it in 
detail, and I believe has the confidence. I have also shared my idea with J. Shanklin, Guy H and 
Martin M. They are 4 apart two dozen other global names that are involving / assisting me, and know 
about it.

Well, there is indeed a great lot I could share about my project, however I for now simply express 
saying my past half year has been spent very, very intensely in preparing a biography on comets. To 
be honest, it started with a staunch "inner voice" which gonged loud enough over time for me to 
actually initiate.

What I am attempting is the largest imaginable biography on comet hunters and discoverers. What is 
impressive about it is:

a) It spans individuals over 8-9 countries
b) It covers the entire 20th century (infact beginning from mid-1800s)
c) The number of individuals on whom biographies will be presented (short or long, depending on the 
person's accessibility) amounts to easily more than 50, I reckon even a staggering 60! From my side, 
no name in my experience that I can think of will be left out.

Whats further impressive is the entire mentioned-above is just 70% of the book. I wish to bring out 
several other aspects on the sport of comet hunting and related, interviews with comet groups and 
persons, and other innovative features yet to be conjured up. It should be much more than you asked 
for, in one big treatise.

To share my seriousness about it, I had originally wished the biography also manifests in form of a 
television documentary by an educational channel. Infact the documentary idea was the seed for the 
book; the book came up half a year ago, the documentary desire was since early last year. Several 
weeks ago on first thought, I went ahead and submitted my proposal to National Geographic USA. It 
was a very painful wait for over 50 days to hear a Yes from them. They denied saying its a good 
topic otherwise, but not for a commercial documentary. I was dejected and took another step and 
wrote to a private US filmmaker whom I had heard of. And now there seems to be a surprise awaiting, 
which I would share soon, if he accepts the same.

Having not actually been a comet hunter myself or a popular name in comets, why me and this kind of 
work? Well, it is just me and my personal devotion towards comets that I realize myself to be the 
torch-bearer. There always has to be someone to do something first, and with this it would be me.

I have already spent around 500 hours on this, to see only 40% completion! On several days I have 
sat with it for 8 hours continuous.

Ofcourse, UK history is also being included apart the UK comet discoverers Denning, Alcock, Panther 
and Candy. [And Caroline Herschel too]

Actually Denis B was the one to propose the idea of the same, which is why I raise the request here. 
I wish to ask the senior members of BAA if there is a possibility as a guest speaker I can get to 
present the theme / contents of my upcoming biography to BAA members during its meeting on May 18. I 
am anyway not a good person on stage, so I will like to keep it short, around 15 minutes at maximum. 
I wish to have some open inputs from all members present there. That will be a matter of great pride 
for me, since BAA Comet Section is one place I have reverence for.

I also wish to research the "RAS and BAA libraries at Burlington House in London" for original 
information, as informed by Denis. Do let me know what you think.

As I like to put it, if 2013 is the comet-in-the-sky year with PanSTARRS, ISON and Lemmon, I can 
only hope with the completion of this work by year end, 2013 will also be flavored by this surprise 
literary work, to be remembered.

Regards,

Amar A. Sharma.
www.picasaweb.google.com/nikayaobservatory

--- On Sat, 9/3/13, Nick James <ndj at nickdjames.com> wrote:

From: Nick James <ndj at nickdjames.com>
Subject: [BAA Comets] Comet Section meeting
To: Comets-disc at britastro.org
Date: Saturday, 9 March, 2013, 4:45 PM

Morning all,

Arrangements for the BAA Comet Section meeting on May 18 are now fairly
advanced and we have a web page up containing details:

http://www.britastro.org/cometmeeting2013

This will be updated as more information becomes available ahead of the
meeting.

This will be the first BAA comets only meeting for some time and
hopefully we will have some good observations of C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
to discuss.

Nick.

PS - I'll be sending a BAA e-bulletin out sometime this weekend to
remind people that PanSTARRS is entering our northern hemisphere skies
and I'll tag notification of this meeting onto the end.
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