One of the ones I had to leave ’til next time was an excellent copper coin with a stamp/imprint from the mongol dynasty, set up under Ogedei Khan.  The inscription on it was very clear, and of course in the mongol/tartar script.  I am such a beginner at all this, but I’ve been looking at the coins and reading the history which is imprinted on them for so long, I was delighted with a chance to pick up a few.

What’s really cool is to sit and think of all the people’s hands who’ve handled the coin, all the years that have slipped by it.  It’s that kind of history that I want my stories to have, the kind that feels as tangible as ancient cash in the palm of my hand.

Of course, even with binoculars, it still looked more like a tiny splat of pea soup than a comet, or maybe a place where someone had smudged the erasor of their pencil across the night sky.  But I enjoyed imagining it as a hurtling ball of ice with a thick tail spread behind.

We located Comet Holmes using an interactive sky chart at Sky and Telescope.  I’m sure the folks over there have better viewing equipment than our small potatoes binoculars, but they couldn’t have gotten a bigger thrill.

Many of you can go take a look for yourselves.  Or, if your not so into shivering at fuzzy blobs and your brother-in-law permanently borrowing your telescope, you can go to Amazing Space and learn all kinds of comet legends and trivia while sitting snug inside.

Besides being the funniest scheme I’ve ever come across, it also reminding me that we shouldn’t neglect funky folklore in our fantasy worlds.  And remember what they say–truth is stranger than fiction.