Comet ISON: When Fire Meets Ice

with Chuck Bueter

What do we know about comets? How do comets behave? Will Comet ISON survive its trip around the Sun?

Chuck Bueter of Granger, IN, has led astronomy education and public outreach programs both regionally and nationally for over 20 years, for which he was awarded the Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in July 2013. He has been an astronomy counselor for the YMCA AstroCamp program at Camp Eberhart in Three Rivers, MI, for over ten years. In 2004 and 2012 Bueter spearheaded Transit of Venus education, for which NASA recognized him as a significant partner in one of the largest education events in NASA history.  During the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, thousands of students in St. Joseph County, IN, observed and measured the darkness of the night sky in the Let There Be Night program that Bueter co-coordinated with Art Klinger, with some of their innovative activities now in education kits offered by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.  Featured among Bueter's websites is Paper Plate Education, a unique collection of hands-on activities that use simple paper plate.  In anticipation of Comet ISON, Bueter's community in South Bend, IN, is celebrating the uncertainty of science with the 2013 Comet Festival (www.cometfestival.com).