Article 98856 of sci.astro: Path: matra.meer.net!flop.mcom.com!news.Stanford.EDU!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!gatech!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!simtel!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!peg!wlmss From: wlmss@peg.apc.org Newsgroups: sci.astro Date: 23 Aug 95 00:34 GMT+1000 Subject: Re: Hale-bop Message-ID: <736800005@peg> References: Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway Lines: 195 Hale-Bopp Information. 8><--------------------snippedy snip snip snip---------------- SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN -- AUGUST 4, 1995 COMET HALE-BOPP The comet discovered on July 23rd by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp is certainly getting a lot of attention. Rob McNaught has found an image of the comet taken April 27, 1993, when it was 13.1 astronomical units from the Sun. At that time it was 18th magnitude and had a faint coma. With that observation, plus hundreds more made in the past two weeks, Brian Marsden calculates that right now Hale-Bopp is headed inbound but still beyond Jupiter, 7 a.u. from the Sun and farther away than any comet ever discovered by amateurs. There's been lots of speculation that an outburst may be making the comet look many magnitudes brighter than...otherwise... Meanwhile, Warren Offutt, one of Hale's New Mexico neighbors, used his 24-inch reflector and a CCD camera to record a "spiral coma," an appearance typical of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 after its own outburst. Sky & Telescope columnist John Bortle notes that when an outburst occurs in a comet, a second outburst sometimes occurs about 30 days later. Bortle was intrigued by the comet's fan-shaped head on July 31st. According to Marsden the comet will reach perihelion just inside the Earth's orbit on April 1, 1997. It will grace the predawn sky for northern observers that spring, but how bright it will get is still anybody's guess. If the current magnitude of 10 is for real and not fortified by an outburst, this could become a very nice object in 18 months. For now, however, it's slowly crossing Sagittarius....... Topic 9 Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - 08/ baalke sci.space.news 4:21 PM Aug 11, 1995 (at kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) (From News system) SKY & TELESCOPE WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN August 11, 1995..... COMET HALE-BOPP In the past week the brightness of Comet Hale-Bopp has remained near magnitude 10, giving astronomers more confidence that it was not discovered during an outburst. According to Brian Marsden the comet will reach perihelion just inside the Earth's orbit on April 1st, 1997, and predictions for its peak brightness are running anywhere from mag- nitude 0 to -2. For now, however, it's slowly crossing Sagittarius, and during the coming week moonlight should not interfere. Here are Hale-Bopp's 2000 coordinates for 0 hours Universal Time: R.A. (2000) Decl. August 13 18h 30.5m -31d 30' August 15 18h 29.4m -31d 25' August 17 18h 28.3m -31d 20' Topic 13 INBOUND COMET WILL HIT 8/21 Response 9 of 11 omnix alt.paranet.ufo 12:25 AM Aug 8, 1995 (at infoserv.com) (From News system) ............. Sometimes wild rumors have a basis in fact. The Hale Bopp comet is due to approach Earth in April 1997 (IAU Circular #6198). EARLY (again let me emphasize early) calculations show this could be a large comet that may be quite bright. Astronomers are very cautious to say more after predicting the Kohoutek comet to be spectacular. I don't know what the Globe says and I don't know any secret agents (that I am aware of) so would an annoucement from the Royal Greennich Observatory be sufficent? There are two images of comet Hale_Bopp held at anonymous ftp site. ftp.ast.cam.ac.uk Username anonymous Password your_email_address cd /pub/Images/Hale_Bopp comet.gif Trailed stars stationary comet 307232 bytes comet_star.gif Trailed comet stationary stars 35795 bytes The comet was imaged by the JKT on 3 August 1995 between 0135 and 0200 hrs using exposures of 250, 250 and 600 seconds, with V, R and B filters. The JKT has an aperture of 1.0 metres. The comet moved significantly during the course of the exposures. The three images obtained have therefore been combined in two ways. In the first the comet is exactly registered causing the stars to blur and in the second image the stars are registered causing the comet to blur. The field of view is 3.5 arc mins on the side which, at the distance of the comet of 560 million miles, corresponds to 575 000 miles, about the diameter of the moon's orbit about the earth....... 8><---------------------------------------------------- >Topic 51 Hale-Bopp seen before? >sci.astro 11:02 AM Aug 9, 1995 >(at bbs.mhv.net) (From News system) Ken Arromdee (arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu) wrote: > Out of curiosity, has anyone been trying to find this comet in ancient > writings? (A 4000 year period should put the previous appearance during > the time period of ancient civilizations....) F. Pfister in "Greek Gods and Heroes McGibbon & Kee London 1961 said: "A daughter of Nyx, the night, was Eris (Strife). At first she was small in stature but gradually she assumed gigantic proportions, raising her head to the sky, towering above the earth, spreading hatred among mankind. Zeus sent her to the ships of the Greeks off Troy..." "Hatred" would probably be better translated as "angst". Any scholars of Homer & Hesiod around? Zeus was Jupiter, and other accounts in many mythologies support my thesis that cometary visitations inspired many hithertoo senseless stories. Like how Zeus streched Hera (hair, comet) out, and how he sent thunderbolts at the Earth. The ancients spoke of new gods being born from Jupiter's brow. This was probably also Aciel, Lord of the Underworld, the counter- balance to the solar god. Oh, and Lugh or Lucifer, the lightbringer. Looks like astrology means something, however prosaic. It *was* the Archer who was stung by the Scorpion. The comet is depicted on the Golspy stone. Best data I can offer quickly is 1550 BC and the "flash" that marked the end of the ensuing chaos was 1190 BC. That's 3546 years for one or more visits. If anyone can send me anything better from the science end of things I'll see what other matches I can find in history/mythology. I want to be prepared to help defuse the hysteria that some fundamentalist groups are sure to try to foster. 3 or 4 hundred years of wandering debris again? Lets hope not. Perhaps an earlier visit resulted in the deluge...c 5100 BC? Regards- Lawrie Williams Topic 67 Hale-Bopp - a False Comet Response 2 of 15 0005819742 alt.alien.visitors 11:19 PM Aug 15, 1995 (at mcimail.com) (From News system) ......... The Orbit of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) The orbit of this comet is of long period (something over 3000 years). It has been through the inner solar system before. That is, it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud. Its orbit is a very long, stretched out ellipse and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun. The comet reaches its closest point to the Sun (perihelion) at 15.4 hours UT on April 1, 1997 (no joke). At that time, it will be about 0.913 astronomical units from the Sun (one AU = about 93 million miles -- the distance between the Sun and the Earth) or roughly 85 million miles from the Sun. This is not a particularly close approach to the Sun. Some comets, like Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965, have literally skimmed the surface of the Sun (and others have actually gone right into the Sun). Nonetheless, any comet that comes within 1 AU of the Sun has a chance to put on a nice show. This comet will NOT hit the Earth. The comet will make its closest approach to the Earth on March 23, 1997. At that time, the comet will be more than 120 million miles from Earth -- not even a very close approach! Will the comet "cross" the Earth's orbit? Well, yes and no...the comet will come closer to the Sun than the Earth, but it will never actually physically cross any point in space that is occupied by the Earth -- it can't hit the Earth! The orbit is inclined nearly 90 degrees from the ellipitic (the plane of our solar system in which the planets orbit). The comet will come up from the south, go over the top of the Sun and then plunge down again. This means that the comet will be best seen from the Southern Hemisphere (and lower Northern latitudes) EXCEPT when it is at its brightest. In March and April 1997, it will only be visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Steve Topic 67 Hale-Bopp - a False Comet Response 3 of 15 ergp alt.alien.visitors 9:47 AM Aug 16, 1995 (at america.net) (From News system) ........... Here are the orbital elements of Hale-Bopp..... : Quoting IAU Cricular #6198: : T= 1997 Apr. 1.6416 : e= 0.994441 : q= 0.913023 : w= 130.6678 --- : lan= 282.4729 |-- 2000.0 : i= 89.4142 --- .......... 8><------------------- snip ------------------------------------------- Lawrie did this.