[re-send . . . I proofread this several times before sending . . . and still . . . ]
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Dear all,
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Many of you may remember that, a little over three years ago, I announced that I was ¡°semi-retiring¡± from visual comet observing, At that time I wasn¡¯t entirely sure what I meant by ¡°semi-retiring,¡± but what it pretty much ended up meaning was that I cut back quite a bit on that activity, focusing primarily on bright and/or otherwise interesting comets, and decreasing my systematic observing program from three/four observations per comet per month down to more like one/two. Also, prior to that point I would try to chase down just about every faint and nondescript comet that I felt I had any chance of detecting visually, but afterwards I pretty much stopped doing that except in very rare cases.
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A significant factor in my decision to ¡°semi-retire¡± lies in the fact that I¡¯ve been hanging around longer and longer, and age, unfortunately, is starting to take its toll. As a result of an earlier hospitalization I had already been on oxygen therapy for over three years then, plus issues with my knees and lower back were making observing ¨C which among other things entails rolling the big telescope out of its building onto a concrete observing slab ¨C more and more ¡°challenging.¡± I have nevertheless kept things up at a reduced level since that time, but as I related in an earlier post I experienced a bacterial infection and an all-but-collapsed lung back in September which resulted in my being hospitalized for three weeks (plus an additional week and a half in a physical rehab facility). I¡¯ve pretty much recovered from all that now ¨C and indeed have been active since my return home ¨C but the mere fact that I experienced all that in the first place tells me somewhat emphatically that I will likely continue to experience age-related health issues as more and more time goes by.
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Even several years ago I was already looking at 2024 as a possible ¡°retirement¡± date, in large part due to the expected returns of 12P/Pons-Brooks and 13P/Olbers that year. Then, in 2023 Comet C/2023 A3 was discovered, offering a potential very bright comet in late 2024, and I decided I would put off any ¡°retirement¡± plans until that object had come and gone. Which it now has . . . although as I related in that earlier post, my hospitalization caused me to miss the entire morning apparition of that comet in late September/early October, and even my earliest observations after it appeared in the evening sky in mid-October were from the parking lot of the rehab facility. (That hospitalization also forced me to miss any attempt for Comet ATLAS C/2024 S1 while it was en route to perihelion. It would have been a difficult observation from my latitude and there is no guarantee any attempts would have been successful . . . but I never was even able to try.)
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Anyway, after 55 years of essentially non-stop systematic visual comet observing that began in early 1970 when an 11-year-old kid first spotted Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka, I have now ¡°retired¡± from that activity. I do so with my lifetime comet tally standing at 760, which includes 533 separate comets (the remainder being additional returns of periodic comets contained within that list of 533). Overall I have made 8147 visual observations of all these various comets.
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As for what ¡°retirement¡± means . . . I¡¯m looking at this more as a ¡°transition¡± that will keep me occupied and (hopefully) productive during the coming years. I¡¯ve been imaging comets (and other objects) via the Las Cumbres Observatory for over seven years now, and I expect to keep that up (and possibly expand it). I¡¯ve focused primarily on follow-up observations of objects on the PCCP (and NEOCP) pages, and for example I was able to provide three sets of astrometric observations for Martin Macek¡¯s recent comet discovery (C/2024 Y1) that were used in its discovery announcement. I¡¯ve also successfully recovered a small number of expected periodic comets ¨C most notably 13P/Olbers ¨C and will probably keep trying my hand at that from time to time. I have been collaborating with LCO¡¯s Global Sky Partners educators¡¯ forum; these are some outstanding educators from around the world who are doing some truly amazing things. It is an honor to be associated with a group like this, and I expect to continuing working with them and assisting them in their activities whenever they need or desire it.
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I don¡¯t necessarily intend to walk away from visual observing entirely, but anything I do from here on out will just be on an occasional rather than systematic basis, and will likely only involve bright and/or otherwise interesting comets. Indeed, if C/2024 G3 should happen to become a very bright object in about two weeks¡¯ time, I expect to be giving it a try. Over the longer haul . . . well, I promised my new wife Vickie (married for a little over four months now!) that, should she ever want to relocate closer to ¡°civilization,¡± I will not complain and will happily go along with her. For the time being she is quite content to stay in our rural location, but as we both continue to age I can foresee a time when it might become necessary for us to relocate accordingly.
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As I have been doing for several years, I will continue to write about and post descriptions of any comets that I do manage to observe visually, and add to that lifetime tally; anyone who is interested can follow these at . As I have also done in the past, I¡¯ll continue to add events and updates from my personal life in these updates, when appropriate. Also for anyone who might be interested, I will be performing a statistical analysis of all those observations I have made of all those comets over the years, and when that is completed I will post it and activate the appropriate link on that page.
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If you all will indulge me, before I end this post allow me to share my ¡°final¡± (at least, for now) visual comet observing session. It was the night of December 24-25; yes, that was Christmas Eve, but I didn¡¯t really contrive it that way; the skies were clear and the weather conditions were good, and I wanted to take appropriate advantage.
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There were two comets, both of which I considered quite appropriate for a ¡°final¡± night. The first was Tsuchinshan-ATLAS C/2023 A3, which had faded quite a bit from its peak display over two months earlier and which was starting to get quite low in the western sky (indeed, it disappeared behind trees while the sky was still in astronomical twilight). When it was at its best it was the best comet I have seen during the 21st Century and, indeed, the best comet for me since the one that bears my name from over a quarter-century ago.
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The second, and final, comet was 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, which is now diffusing out from the pair of large outbursts it underwent in November. (I took the image I posted in an earlier thread in order to document this ¡°final¡± observation.) This is by far my most-observed comet, with a total of 382 visual observations spread out over four ¡°returns.¡± My very first observation of this comet came in May 1981, while I was on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park in California; I had recently begun monitoring this comet for outbursts ¨C up to that point unsuccessfully ¨C but even though this particular outburst had taken place almost two weeks earlier, since this was back in the days when IAU Circulars were sent by snail-mail, and I had been away from home for several days, I was completely unaware that it was in an outburst phase, but nevertheless clearly detected it near 12th magnitude. I excitedly called up Dan Green the following morning, who told me that it had indeed been in outburst for quite a while; he nevertheless did end up publishing my observation ().
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In my own mind, at least, this observation gave me full legitimacy as a comet observer; it is one thing, after all, to see a cometary phenomenon like this when one already knows about it, but another thing entirely to see it when one is completely unaware of it beforehand. (This also came during a dark and difficult time in my personal life, and it substantially helped my emotional well-being.) For many years after that I continued to monitor 29P for outbursts and detected quite a few of them; for some of these I was the first observer to report such an event. Nowadays, thanks primarily to Richard Miles and his collaborators the comet is kept under almost constant surveillance, and we now know of new outbursts as soon as they happen.
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Anyway . . . even though I¡¯m now ¡°retired¡± from visual observing, I still plan to remain active in some capacity for at least the near- to intermediate-term future, and you¡¯ll still be hearing from me from time to time. My body is letting me know in no uncertain terms, however, that the time has come to conclude this activity and move on to whatever else may await me in this life.
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It has really been a good run, but it¡¯s time . . .
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Sincerely,
Alan
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