What are the odds we will be able to witness something this spectacular and magnificent again in our lifetime?

I remember seeing this with a friend and his father, we had a cheap telescope
shit was cool

Some are very bright and visible, others are nothing visible at all.

Such are the vicissitudes of life.

If you have never seen a total solar eclipse, commit now to do so before you die. It is something to experience, in a way I cannot describe.

I've been fortunate to see two, and one annular eclipse, and have long-term plans for t east two more, weather, longevity and travel funds permitting.

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1743X1;orb=1
Most of the orbital elements are marked N/A so we're out of luck.
Gauss claimed he developed his method in 1794, half a century too late. :(

The brightness of the stars as WAY enhanced, so the comet is as well.

that said, the eye can flick about over time, adjust t look at different things, etc. in a way that a single camera image cannot.
My memories of Hale-Bopp are not THAT amazing, but pretty damned close.

Members of my astronomy club traveled to see it. I wasn't able to. It was only about 75% where I was. We had filtered 'scopes and projection-boxes.
I DID see the NASA feed on a movie-theater size screen, but I know it's not the same.
I HAVE seen over 90% in the past; still insufficient to show the corona. :(
I'll try harder next time.

Oops. I meant to say this was the eclipse last August.

The chase is half the fun. Keep at it.

>What are the odds we will be able to witness something this spectacular and magnificent again in our lifetime?
If Musk's plan succeeds, it will be a pretty common occurrence to see BFRs burn up in the atmosphere near the landing stations.

It's strange that we can't possibly estimate it's current position, because somehow we can estimate where the Great Comet of 1577 is.
Since there are no ancient recordings of a bright "falling star" with six tails rising above the horizon we can assume that this object has an extremely long orbital period (thousands of years) or has been destroyed. The six tails could even mean that it has fragmented upon getting too close to the sun, maybe.

All in all, the people of 1744 could not even begin to understand the scale of what they were seeing or that maybe something like that would never be seen by humanity again.

That's interesting that we CAN estimate the position of Comet 1577. Sort of.
If it's currently at 320 AU (best number I could find on Wikipedia), then it's period must be at least 5700 years. Since it passed perihelion only 440 years ago, it's traversed only a fraction of the orbit since then, and that means it's nowhere close to aphelion.
The orbit must be very close to parabolic -- maybe even hyperbolic (which would make that recent elongated asteroid NOT our first interstellar visitor.) And a characteristic of such orbits is that quite small changes in velocity near perihelion produce drastic changes elsewhere along the orbit. The 320 AU figure is reportedly NASA's best-fit to the orbit, but I take its accuracy with several grains of salt. I think we can take it for granted that WE'LL never see it again.

And if your hypothesis about a break-up (which would explain the multiple tails nicely) is true, no one will ever see it again.

Do parabolic or hyperbolic trajectories indicate that the object has originated beyond the Kuiper Belt or even beyond the Oort Cloud?

It's incredible when we think about it, some of these objects have been travelling at incredible near constant speeds for thousands or dozens of thousands of years, yet, when looked at through cosmological lenses, the distances in empty space they have covered are so small and insignificant.

The scale of the universe is far beyond our comprehension. It never stops making me feel in awe when I think about how vast it is and all the wonders out there that we'll never get to see either because they are too far or because if we ever reach them, they will have long disappeared from existence.
If we don't somehow achieve the ability to travel empty space at lightspeed I don't see how we are ever leaving the solar system.

Bump

>Do parabolic or hyperbolic trajectories indicate that the object has originated beyond the Kuiper Belt or even beyond the Oort Cloud?

Yes. It means they are coming in with an excess of energy - that is it's not from just 'falling' into the solar system, it had speed before it started on that course. This excess will also carry it back out. However, it is possible that an interaction with a third body would provide this extra energy from within the solar system. The consequences would be the escape velocity of the one, and a diminished energy (in the form of an alteration of perihelion and/or inclination) of the other.

Crazy.

I hope we get to see a Great Comet as spectacular as Hale-Bopp or the one from 1744 again in our lifetimes.

I want to experience a supernova in my lifetime. one that destroys like half of the species in one side of the planet (not mine though)