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Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1)The long awaited apparition of Hale-Bopp was the astronomical event of 1997. It is deservedly called The Great Comet of 1997. Shortly after it's disovery on July 23, 1995 by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp it became clear a big one was coming. When it was 7.1424 AU, 1068.5 million km, away from the Sun that day it already had a magnitude around 10. It was to reach it's perihelion on April 1, 1997, 20 months in the future. In May 1996 I observed it for the first time. But at that time we had just had the great show of The Great Comet of 1996, Hyakutake. During 1996 the comets brightness slowly increased and with it the hubbub about it's peak brightness. When the comet became visible again in January 1997, after it's conjunction with the Sun, the fun really started. The comet passed along the Dumbell Nebula in the beginning of February, the Veil Nebula and the North-America Nebula at the end of February. Then the Andromeda Galaxy at March 26 and the comet reached perihelion at March 31 with a fantastic coma and tail. Hale-Bopp passed M34 on April 8 and went between the California Nebula and the Pleiades during the third week of April as a zero-magnitude object. During the first week of May 1997 the comet disappeared in the morning twilight for Europe. At this writing, July 2000, the comet is still being observed as a fourteenth magnitude fuzzy patch in the southern skies. |
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