Hi,

I was just wondering if the latest outburst of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) was a
real
event or just the effect of weather (the moon just went out of sight the first
time
for Central Europe) and/or internet (bias by published observation). Maybe it is
even
a mix of all three effects.

I believe there was an outburst (but with a quite small amplitude, maybe about 1
mag)
but we may never find out since the published observations right now tend to
split
into two groups - no outburst and outburst.

Unfortunately bias is a thing we will never eliminate and such bright and big
comets
are hard to estimate. Unfortunately we can also not just go out and observe
without
prior selected comparison stars since there is the danger of picking up
variables or
red stars which are not suitable.

What do you think?

Regards

Maik
--

Wenn man Dir liniertes Papier gibt, schreibe quer ueber die Zeilen.
If they give you ruled paper, write the other way. * Juan Ramon Jimenez
________________________________________________________________________
maik@... http://www.comethunter.de
Homepage der Fachgruppe Kometen: http://www.fg-kometen.de