Alan Hale Autobiography

I was raised on the outskirts of Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the southern New Mexico desert, and first developed an interest in astronomy in the First Grade, when my father checked out some astronomy books from the local library for me to read. Although my interests oscillated between various subjects during the subsequent years, by Sixth Grade I had finally "settled" on astronomy, and during that year (early in 1970) I convinced my father to purchase me a small telescope, a 4 1/2 inch reflector. Throughout my years in junior high and high school I extensively used both this telescope and, during my senior year of high school, a 12 1/2 inch reflector owned by the local school district.

While in high school I participated in the science fair program, doing projects on the asteroid Eros during its 1975 approach to the earth, and on Comet West during its appearance in 1976. This latter project netted me a trip to the International Science Fair. Following my high school graduation I attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Physics in 1980. I was then stationed at various naval bases in southern California, both in San Diego and Long Beach.

With an 8 inch reflector I had purchased as a graduation present to myself, I actively pursued comet observing during this period, and my work eventually came to the attention of some of the comet scientists around the nation, including those of the International Halley Watch, in which I was eventually asked to participate. I got out of the Navy in late 1983, and shortly thereafter began working for the Deep Space Network at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. I worked at JPL for 2 1/2 years, and was involved in, among other projects, the Voyager 2 encounter with Uranus in early 1986.

Later that year I left JPL and returned to New Mexico to enter graduate school at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. I successfully earned my Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1992, with a dissertation centering on aspects involved in the search for planetary systems around other stars. It was during this period that I purchased the 16 inch reflector with which I do most of my present visual observing. After getting a first-hand look at the poor job market for scientists in our present-day society, in 1993 I decided to form my own independent research and education organization, the Southwest Institute for Space Research. As Director of the Institute I perform research on various aspects of the search for other planetary systems, work with schools and other organizations in this region to promote astronomy education, and involve myself in activities related to the commercial development of space. I relocated the Institute to the mountain village of Cloudcroft, New Mexico in early 1995 when my family I moved there, and it was from my driveway that I made the discovery of Comet Hale-Bopp a few months later.

Thomas Bopp Autobiography

I was born in Denver Colorado, in 1949 and the following year my family moved to Youngstown, Ohio. My interest in astronomy was kindled when I was three years old. My father held me on his lap on the porch steps and we watched a large meteor shower together. As I grew older, dad taught me about the constellations, the Aurora Borealis, and the Planets. Over the years I would spend many summer evenings in the yard watching for "shooting stars", and dreaming of space travel.

After graduating from Chaney High School in 1967, I entered the Air Force. After technical training I was stationed in the Philippines for eighteen months during which time I was able to witness the "green flash" phenomena on several occasions. My last year in the service was spent at Davis Monthan AFB, in Tucson Arizona, where I met and married my wife Charlotte ,and the following year we were blessed with the birth of our daughter April.

After my service tour we moved back to Ohio and I enrolled at Youngstown State University to major in Business Administration. Among other Elective Courses, My favorite was astronomy, where I made acquaintance with Dr. Edwin Bishop and Dr. Warren Young who introduced me to the Mahoning Valley Astronomical Society, a club in the Warren ,Ohio area. My particular area of interest in astronomy, is in deep sky objects and I put the club's 16" Newtonian reflector to good use along with now Astronaut Ronald Parise and other friends.

In 1980 I moved to the Pnoenix area. I attended meetings and "star parties" with several clubs in the Phoenix area but didn't settle with any one group until I met my friend Jim Stevens and began observing with the "unofficial" North Phoenix Alternative Astronomical Society, of which he was a member, where on one of our observing sessions on July 22nd, 1995, Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered.