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Article: <5dq7mp$jb3@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Hale-Bopp THEN and NOW - 4
Date: 11 Feb 1997 16:45:13 GMT
This was what was said back THEN, and NOW ... ?
.........
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
A near-parabolic orbit with perihelion passage in April
1997
Subsequent orbital calculations depend heavily on this [1993] assumption and for that reason, there is still some uncertainty about the comet's true orbit. When the 1993 position is included in the computations, it appears that Comet Hale-Bopp moves in a near-parabolic orbit with a revolution time of about 3000 years. According to this orbit, it will pass about 120 million kilometers from Jupiter in April 1996, and it will approach the Sun to about 140 million kilometers when it passes perihelion in early April 1997.
At the time of perihelion, the comet's geocentric distance will be about 200 million kilometers, the angular distance ('elongation') in the sky from the Sun about 45 degrees. It will actually be 'circumpolar' in Northern Europe and therefore well observable all night from there.
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Comet Observations Home Page,
Charles S. Morris /
csm@encke.jpl.nasa.gov
C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)
An observation by John Borle (Stormville, NY):
1995 Sept. 19.02 UT: m1=10.0, Dia=2.0', DC=3 .. 41 cm L (90x)
This comet has entered a very star-rich field which makes locating and observing this comet more difficult.