It will be a hybrid meeting meaning that the club is meeting in the Planetarium but our speaker Mr. Rao will be presenting remotely via zoom.

Great Comets of the Past – by Joe Rao

Comets come in two varieties – “common” comets, which are visible in telescopes, binoculars and dimly with the naked eye, and then there are the “great” comets, which stand above all of the other comets appearing in a given year as being stupendously bright and or fantastically structured.  Unfortunately, such celestial showpieces only appear on an average of about once in 20 to 25 years.  Over the past few centuries there have been some truly amazing comets that have adorned our skies. Joe Rao will show photographs and talk about some of them in his presentation.

Joe Rao has been a member of ASLI since the late 1980’s.  He was a television meteorologist for over 40 years. He still serves as an associate and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He also writes about astronomy for the online news service, Space.com, as well as Natural History magazine, Sky & Telescope, and other publications. On July 3rd, 2023, the International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 20009 “Joerao” in his honor.