Hale-Bopp

[Granada]

For years I've been kicking myself for not having seen the Hale-Bopp comet in '97 but recently I realised I couldn't have seen it because I was living very low in the southern hemisphere! Wondering if anyone here had the pleasure of seeing it and what the experience was like?

[bojan]

I saw it couple of times when on business trip to USA (TX), from ground and from aircraft.
It was amazing, very bright...

[doppler]

It was visible for a short time in the southern hemisphere. I was living in Morgan, a small town 200kms north east of Adelaide and managed to see it on a couple of nights. From memory the waxing moon soon dimmed the view.
I did manage to get a few images on 35mm slide film, here's a scan of one slide. Camera piggy backed on a tracking telescope (guided by hand of course)

[AstroJunk]

It was absolutely stunning. I was still living in the UK and witnessed it in all it's glory from one of the darkest and clearest parts of the Pennines in North England when it was at it's best and still visually the greatest I have seen by an absolute mile. It was clearly visible from light polluted London, but I made a trip North to my home town with my soon to be wife around Easter time (I think) and we just stopped at the side of the road and stared in amazement as the comet and its two tails dominated the sky.

Amusingly, I watched the 2012 total eclipse along side Alan Hale (and aforementioned now wife!) who was invited to be part of the NASA broadcast team. Jolly nice chap.

BTW, don't feel bad - I missed Halley!

[anthony2302749]

I was living in the suburb of Reservoir in Melbourne. Managed to get a glimpse of the comet while standing a top of the neighbours fence as it was low on the horizon.

[N1]

I saw it over Europe, night after night. An otherworldly display visible from the middle of town. A proper comet, bright enough so it (and several degrees of its tail) could be seen from just about anywhere. I was too young to fully appreciate then how rare such amazingly bright comets were, yet old enough to take it all in. They only other comet in the same league (if not better) that I saw was McNaught in 2007.

[OzEclipse]

I observed Hale Bopp in the northwest sky from QLD. It had a high surface brightness but wasn’t very big. Hyakutake was more impressive due to its tail being 10 times longer and both pale into insignificance compared to comet McNaught 2006P1, the only Great Comet of the past 45 years.

https://joe-cali.com/eclipses/PAST/mcnaught_images/mcnaught.html

The comet and inner tail were both easily observed in early bright twilight and from the centre of Canberra. The western edge of the city was only 10 minutes drive from my home so I usually headed just outside the city edge.

As the end of twilight approached the beautiful striated tail stretched up to 40 deg across the evening sky. I recall photographing the comet in bright twilight just using my then film camera auto exposure mode. Twilight exposures were of the order of 1/4 s 500mm f5.6 with Ektachrome E200.

Comet Halley was impressive but only pre perihelion around March 20 when it sported a beautiful scimitar tail in the predawn sky. The tail was similar in length to Hale Bopp but fainter. I agree that it wasn’t impressive during April post perihelion but that was predicted in Stephen Edberg’s NASA book on Halley’s Comet.

Comet Leonard in December 2021 is another favourite. Faint to the naked eye it was a very rewarding subjugation with optical aid. Living under Bortle 2 skies outside Young I was able to observe it in clear cloudless moonless skies 15 out of 21 nights of the apparition and partly cloudy skies two other nights. Although fainter, the comet dramatically changed appearance and tail structure almost every night. It was as if I was observing a different comet every night. I had a relay of friends from Canberra coming out to escape the light pollution and near complete cloud cover that hangs around the ranges and coastal strip.

The tail could be traced for about 18 degrees in binoculars and tail structures and disconnects could be studied visually in my 6” and 18” telescopes with both scopes delivering rewarding views.

https://joe-cali.com/astronomy/astrophotography-2/index9.html

Joe

[trek1701]

This is me pointing at Comet Hale-Bopp from the lookout on Mt Ida, Central Victoria.
That’s the waxing Moon at upper right with the lens reflection between the legs of the water tower.

[deanm]

In 1997, I went to Israel (of all places) to do a science post-doc at a university there.

On my 1st morning (04:00 - jet lag!), I walked through a field to get to the entrance gate.

High above, I saw what I thought to be an IDF military helicopter at considerable altitude with its searchlight on, moving imperceptibly slowly...

It wasn't until days later I found out it was Hale-Bopp!
Dean