The Value of Visual Observing in a Photo-Happy World

Abstract

The answer to the question at the end of the previous section is, we dare to suggest, a very definitive “Yes.” Visual observations remain important and are very relevant in the case of comet observing. For one thing, visual observations link today’s comet observers with the line of their predecessors stretching back to the days of ancient China and Greece over 2000 years ago. Only by comparing visual descriptions can we relate the appearance of a comet seen today with one seen in decades, centuries or even millennia past. Only by comparing visual observations of a periodic comet during a contemporary return can we ascertain whether any changes in that object’s activity have taken place since astronomers of a century ago described that same body during its earlier apparitions.