From: Bill Arnett <billa@ZNET.COM>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 06:10:07 -0800
Subject: What am I doing up at this ungodly hour?
Seeing Hale-Bopp, of course. From my balcony in the middle of San Jose, I can easily see it naked-eye even thru the horrendous light pollution. I could see only about 1/4 degree of tail. And I'm unable to make a useful magnitude estimate; the sky background varies so much that all the nearby comparison stars seem to be in the wrong relations to each other let alone to Hale-Bopp. I hate cities!
From: GeoZay@aol.com
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 12:02:48 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Hale/Bopp Observation Jan 29 ZAYGE
I observed Hale/Bopp thru 7X50 binoculars on Jan 29th. I had a Limiting magnitude near 5.0 from my workplace in La Mesa, Ca. Between the times of 0508-0525 hrs PST, I can see the comet very easy in the North East with the naked eye. To me it still appears as a star though. Thru the binoculars, I see a tail that appears to be about 1 degree long pointing towards the North. As for approximate magnitude. I compared it with zeta Aquilae again, although it is a lot closer to Gamma Aquilae. I didn't know Gamma Aql's magnitude, but I did for Zeta. Thus after comparing Zeta Aql and Hale/Bopp several times, I mentally condensed the coma to a star point image. Then added the fuzziness of the remainder of the comet in a condensed form. My estimate for Hale/Bopps magnitude is between 2.7 and 2.9. I believe this is pretty close to what I saw during my last sighting on Jan 20? I get the impression that it's stuck on this magnitude range for the moment. If you need help finding HB, look for Altair and measure a little less than 1 fist above and to the left. (this is 1 fist to the North and West of Altair).
George Zay
Long: 116 deg 37' West Lat: 32 deg 50' North
From: JOHN LEPPERT
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 09:32:09 -0800
Subject: Hale-Bopp observation - January 02
JANUARY 02. I walked out of the house at a quarter past five under a fine clear sky ablaze with the stars of late spring, easy 5th magnitude even though the waning crescent Moon, just past last quarter phase, stood well more then 30o due south with Spica 8o to its lower left and bright ruddy Mars 18o to its upper right. Remarkably the calm air felt tropical; as I was to discover upon reaching the observatory office, the temperature stood at 31o and as the recording thermometer graph showed, we'd reached 36o a couple hours after midnight -- the first time I'd seen it rise above freezing since in the last 57 days (November 6). Ah --- if only winter were indeed on the wane. The calendar and near 30-inch prairie snow cover betrays any likelihood of that being the case.
Using SkyGlobe 3.6 and DeepSpace 5.21 software, I determined that Comet Hale- Bopp was to rise at 6:11 at 82.4o in azimuth, and then decided to take advantage of the warm morning and set the tripod mounted 8x56 binoculars outside on the observatory deck, rather then viewing through the office window as I'd done on the first two morning sightings (December 26 and 29) when it was nearly 60 degrees colder in the -30o range. I recovered the comet at 6:31 when it was nearly due east just as astronomical twilight began (officially at 6:35) and nearly two hours before sunrise (officially at 8:30). An observing log follows including time, altitude and azimuth positions:
6:31 3.6o 86.1o first sighting in binoculars 6:34 4.1o 86.7o 6:49 6.7o 89.6o sighted naked eye 7:00 8.5o 91.6o 7:08 9.7o 93.2o 7:15 10.9o 94.5o lost naked eye; Altair 2.8o 79.6o 7:30 13.3o 97.4o 7:36 14.3o 98.6o last sighting; Sun -8.2o 115.6o; Venus 4.9o 132.7o
There was a 5.1 magnitude star 5o48' to Hale-Bopp's lower left, a 5.8 mag- nitude star 23' northeast, and a 5.4 magnitude star 2o32' to its upper right. The ephemeris listed the comet's coordinates for 7 o'clock as being 18hr44.8 RA and 5o09' DEC. I'd estimate the coma as being near 3.5 magnitude, and the tail extended towards the northeast just above the 23' separated star and beyond about another degree or so. Several jets were just visible, appearing near the 7 o'clock PA. I must get the old 4-inch Dynascope set up outside the observatory today, since the comet is too low to be seen with the SCT from within the building.
From: JOHN LEPPERT
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1997 09:13:46 -0800
Subject: Comet Hale-Bopp observation report - January 08
January 8. I left the comfort of the house for the observatory at 5:45 under a clear sky, calm winds, and a temperature of -18oF. This morning's ephemeris for Comet Hale-Bopp listed its position as 18hr54.2 min min RA and 6o43' DEC at 5:48 local time when it was scheduled to rise at 79.8o in azimuth. After placing the 8x56 binoculars and tripod out on the observatory deck, and the 4-inch Dynascope in its polar aligned mounting cradle that had been attached to the SCT tripod several days ago outside the east wall of the observatory, I first sighted the comet naked eye at 6:10 when it was only 3.7o altitude and 83.9o azimuth (using SkyGlobe v. 3.6 software); thereafter I spent thirty minutes using the binoculars and Newtonian before it was obscured by lower level cloud, which dissipated shortly before our 8:29 sunrise. Afterwards, while use DeepSpace v. 5.21 software and a star plot sketch of the inverted telescope field, I made some measurements of field stars. With the comet field-centered in a 46x ocular, the following stars magnitudes, position angles, and star-comet nucleus separation distances were calculated: 5.6 mag, PA 160o, 20'; 9.0 mag, PA 5o, 8'; 9.1 mag, PA 330o, 25'; and 9.2 mag, PA 290o; the comet remains near 3.5 magnitude. An observing log that includes time, altitude, and azimuth positions follows:
6:10 3.7o 83.9o sighted naked eye 6:21 5.5o 86.0o 6:30 7.0o 87.7o made rough field sketch 6.40 8.6o 89.5o last sighting because of cloud
(This was the fifth time the comet has been viewed as a pre-dawn object since recovering it December 26.)
John Leppert
Deneb Observatory 48o56'07"N 99o09'40"W