Starship Asterisk*

Comet Hale Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp's nucleus spins about once every 12 hours. A comet that may well exceed Hale-Bopp's peak brightness is expected to fall into the inner Solar System next year.

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Ah, dear old Hale Bopp!

Here in Sweden most people think that Hale-Bopp is a cellphone. But I remember the comet well. You could see it for months, or at least it felt like that. As I kept looking at the comet, I realized not only how slowly the comet seemed to move, but also how quickly the Moon moved across the Earth's sky. The difference, of course, was not that Hale Bopp was slow and the Moon is fast, but rather that the Moon is so close to the Earth while Hale Bopp was far away.

It's a nice APOD. At one o'clock you can see a bright orange star, "sitting" on some red nebulosity. That star is the Garnet Star, Mu Cephei, and the red nebulosity is IC 1396. You can see a very large (4.5MB!) picture of IC 1396 and Mu Cephei here.

Ann

Well, I observe we are all still here.
Too bad people freak over the supposed "bad omens" of comets, and the like. I prefer my astronomy without the superstition, fear, and hoaxes. Although Near Earth Comets and Asteroids are another matter. Comets are very interesting as they may have brought life to the Earth, water, etc. Wow. We drink, and are made of, ancient "Comet Juice". I find two tailed comets to be very interesting.

Nice picture. Merry Christmas.

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Boomer12k wrote:
Well, I observe we are all still here.
Too bad people freak over the supposed "bad omens" of comets, and the like. I prefer my astronomy without the superstition, fear, and hoaxes. Although Near Earth Comets and Asteroids are another matter. Comets are very interesting as they may have brought life to the Earth, water, etc. Wow. We drink, and are made of, ancient "Comet Juice". I find two tailed comets to be very interesting.

• . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s ... s_group%29
  . http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/north ... sgate.html
  . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Applewhite

I remember watching this comet, and trying so hard to get a good photo of it - with many failures.

Hale-Bopp is one of the reasons I discovered Astronomy Picture of the Day. It was a defining moment in my search for education on the skies.

Thanks, APOD!