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Article: <5dq6s9$gtt@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Hale-Bopp THEN and NOW - 1
Date: 11 Feb 1997 16:31:05 GMT
This is what was said back THEN, and NOW ..?
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Article 305 of jpl.general
From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Mother of all comets intrigues scientists
The Australian
August 1, 1995, by science and technology writer JULIAN CRIBB
Harvard University astronomer Dr. Brian Marsden said it was unheard of for a comet to be visible with small telescopes at such a distance. "It could become the comet of the millennium as it comes toward the sun over the next year or two." he said.
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Comet on the Way, And It Could Be Big
By Charles Petit, [San Francisco] Chronicle
Science Writer
August 4, 1995
After the comet's discovery, Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught of the Anglo-Australian Observatory estimated its orbit back in time and found an image taken with a large telescope in April 1993 showing the then-unnoticed comet 1.2 billion miles away. That it could be seen even then is strong evidence that it is truly large and bright, not just a small comet experiencing a temporary outburst of gas.
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Comet Hale-Bopp Headed for Bright Encounter
baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
PR 10/95 25 August 1995
For immediate release
NEW DISTANT COMET HEADED FOR BRIGHT ENCOUNTER
How Impressive Will Comet Hale-Bopp Become in 1997?
A very unusual comet was discovered last month, on its way from the outer reaches of the solar system towards the Sun. Although it is still situated beyond the orbit of Jupiter, it is so bright that it can be observed in even small telescopes. It has been named "Hale-Bopp' after the discoverers and is already of great interest to cometary astronomers. ...
The magnitude, reported as 10.5 by Hale, is not unusual for a comet that is discovered within one or two hundred million kilometers from the Earth. It corresponds to a brightness that is about 60 times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye and according to the statistics, a few comets with this brightness are normally discovered every year. However, some astronomers early remarked that the comet appeared to be moving rather slowly in the sky, indicating that it were possibly situated farther away.
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Comet Hale-Bopp is Coming! by Edwin L. Aguirre, adapted from Sky &Telescope, November 1995
Speeding toward the inner solar system at nearly a million miles a day, Comet Hale-Bopp, C/1995 O1, for a rendezvous with the Sun, and history, around the spring of 1997. Excitement is already building among professional and amateur astronomers about the new discovery, predicted to become the brightest comet in two decades. ...
Brian Marsden (Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams) remains optimistic. He states that Hale-Bopp is intrinsically bright. In fact, he compares it to the Great Comet of 1811, which exhibited a magnificent tail that stretched more than 1 au. across space.