HALLEY FLASHBACK
EXACTLY 11 years ago - Halley's Comet put on a NICE show
AND, 20 years ago Comet West was SPLENDID
HYAKUTAKE FLASHBACK
Comet Hyakutake headed for near earth encounter (.10 AU) on March 25, 1996!
Recent observations are pointing towards a BETTER than expected apparition:
latest word:
"..possibly mag 0, 30-40 deg tail.." (!) John Bortle
"..intrinsically the BRIGHTEST comet in 400 years.." Brian Marsden
POST MORTEM
WELL, as it turned out, Hyakutake had nearly an 80 degree tail (possibly longer) during close-earth approach! There was observable variation on the timescale of 1 hr (or less) -- visually & photographically! Since the comet was so close to earth.
Comet Hale-Bopp headed for near earth encounter (~1.0 AU) late March, 1996!
Recent January observations are pointing towards an expected INTERESTINGapparition:
latest word:
"..nearly 10 degree visual tail, with moonlight [Jan 31]" (!) Charles Morris
"unusually high degree of activity latter half of 1996, while up to 4 AU out. Most comets show this only at distances of .75 AU or less"
"..intrinsically the BRIGHTEST comet THIS century.."
"initial discovery put comet beyond orbit of Jupiter; was 250 times brighter than Halley at equipvalent distance (!)"
"an estimated 40km diameter nucleus; of 500 known long-period comets, only 10 are known to be 20km or bigger -- most are 1-10km. Hale-Bopp is estimated to be 10 times the size of Halley's Comet"
POST MORTEM
WELL, check back. We will see in coming months..
COMET ARCHIVE
NOTE: still under construction! More archival images waiting to be posted -- Comet Levy, Comet DeVico, Comet Swift-Tuttle, Comet McNaught-Russell... Check back later.
