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Article: <5dvg0s$am4@sjx-ixn3.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: Hale-Bopp THEN and NOW (1-6)
Date: 13 Feb 1997 16:37:48 GMT
In article <01bc192e$c11ca040$6e4f22cf@scopedr.connect.ab.ca>
Paul Cambell writes:
> Nancy posted a series of predictions that astronomers made
> a while ago. I'm glad she did and I'm also glad that most of
> the predictions came true. Hale-Bopp is big and bright.
> "Paul Campbell" <scopedr@connect.ab.ca>
Pretty quiet and non-specific for YOU, Paul. Why are you mumbling into your palm? Since you didn't want to get specific, here's some specifics from a fellow Canada resident, posted on their web site in late 1996, and still there. See if you can address the specifics mentioned in this web posting from Canada. I'll post excerpts from that web site as a series so EACH point can be addressed by you as a standalone, giving it the attention it deserves.
ISSUE 7: Why do the much touted occultations where Hale-Bopp is supposedly being PROVED as real such a bust? As with hiding the Hubble images, the public gets nothing! Is the public noticing?
............
http://www.pe.net/~minnie/occult.html
The Occultation Of Star PPM200723 On The Night Of October Fourth And Fifth
On 30 September of this year, Brian Skiff (bas@lowell.edu) of the Lowell Observatory posted the following message on the newsgroup sci.astro.amateur: "Comet observers and others may want to remember the possible occultation of a mag 9 star by Hale Bopp on Friday evening 4/5 October 1996. ...along a path from SW-NE somewhere across the western US. This event is of interest for permitting a direct determination of the size of the comet's nucleus. We infer indirectly from things like the total brightness and gas & dust production rates that this comet is huge by comparison to others we know about - but just how big we'd like to know. Current information and updates will be posted in Marc Buie's area of the Lowell Observatory Web site..."
This page includes the current ground track (as a map and tables), CCD frames of the field ground the appulse/occultation star, and other information. Therefore the occulation would have provided a good estimate of the nuclear size of the comet-at least one way to tell the size of Hale Bopp. And as this posting promises, amateurs and others would be informed regularly of any changes in the prediction or updates. The prediction was posted to the site on September sixteenth. So in this statement we have two concerns; first-the ability to estimate the size of the nucleus and second-the updating of information. (A comment below on these two points).
... There were some lame excuses, such as, the weather was bad for all of our teams but one in Snowville, Utah. An examination of weather reports for the night of October fourth to the fifth, revealed skies clear-no overcast. And the one team that claimed to have clear viewing? There has been no clear evidence presented from this observation. The only results presented on the site are vague and ambiguous. Even after several emails to Mr. Wasserman, most responded to with silence, explanation was, "So far, we have (unfortunately) no results."