Brittbug
Posted:
Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:34 am
Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 1
|
|
My 9 yr old took an amazing photo of comet lulin
|
|
|
|
|
|
WALLACEBURG — Nine-year-old Brittany Hutchingame wasn’t going to miss the Lulin comet, which made its closest approach to Earth about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
The budding astronomer awoke about 2:50 a.m., crept out of her Duncan Street home, strolled down the street and stood on a snow bank to get a shot of her first comet as it crossed the southeast sky about 38 million miles from Earth.
After setting the zoom to its highest level on her point-and-shoot digital camera, she captured a beautiful image of the green glowing comet, which is made up of cyanogen, a poisonous gas found in many comets, and diatomic carbon. Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space, according to science@NASA website.
Brittany said her papa, Gord Luxton, had sent her an e-mail about the comet’s approach.
“I kind of hand to squint to see it,” she said of trying to spot the comet.
She knew last night was probably her only chance to see it. According to a story in the Taipei Times — where the comet was discovered by Taiwanese astronomer Chi Sheng Lin at the Lulin Observatory in July 2007 — the comet takes more than 20 million years to complete its orbit.
Brittany said, “I just wanted to see the comet so bad.”
She gets her love of astronomy from her stargazing nana, Crystal Luxton, who is envious that Brittany got a better view of the Lulin comet than she did.
Luxton said she was working the midnight shift at a local nursing home when she went outside to look for the comet through binoculars.
“I could barely see it with the naked eye,” she said, noting there was a lot of ambient light that hindered the view.
She added the view wasn’t much better with binoculars because they can’t be held still enough.
When asked if she is jealous of Brittany, Luxton joked: “I am. This is a big deal to me.”
She told her granddaughter the next time a comet is scheduled to past by Earth, “I’m coming to your house.”
Luxton said she’s seen the Hale-Bopp comet before. The first comet she viewed was the Hyakutake comet, which flew by the Earth in 1996, she added.
Brittany’s mother, Cody Hutchingame, admits she only found out about one hour before The Chatham Daily News arrived for an interview, exactly what her daughter did to get her picture.
“I was kind of thinking she just stepped out on the front porch,” she laughed.
|
|
