Comet sighters are two men with a mission
From Correspondent Ann Kellan
ATLANTA (CNN) -- On the evening of July 22, 1995, Alan Hale
was at his home in southern New Mexico, staring at the sky
through his telescope, when he saw a fuzzy dot.
Four hundred miles away, Tom Bopp, while stargazing with
friends in the Arizona desert, saw the same thing.
Their discovery, made minutes apart, is turning out to be one
of the brightest comets to come our way this century. Comet
Hale-Bopp is not only making friends of perfect strangers,
but is linking their names in history.
"At the time, I didn't know him, he didn't know me," Hale
says. "The first conversation was probably a bit stiff,
because we were trying to feel each other out."
Comet evangelists
Now, the pair work as a team, traveling the country to drum
up interest in the comet show.
The fun thing about discovering a comet is that you get it
named after you. And with the show Comet Hale-Bopp is
expected put on, it's turning the pair into celebrities.
There are book signings, planetarium shows, and meetings with
avid amateur astronomers.
Like proud parents, the two share and compare their pictures
of Comet Hale-Bopp with other astronomers, and they answer
questions from other stargazers. At a recent book signing,
the questions, and the askers, ran the gamut.
From a mustachioed man in a fishing vest: How is it that they
discovered the comet at the same time? "Pure coincidence,"
Hale says.
Another man wanted to know what kind of telescopes they used
for their discovery. Hale, the one with the Ph.D. in
astronomy, uses a
16-inch reflector. Bopp is strictly an amateur, with a day
job at a large constructions materials company; he uses a
homemade 17 1/2-inch telescope.
And a common question comes up: Just what is a comet?
"Dirty snowballs is what they are, chunks of ice and
interplanetary dust mixed together," Bopp says , as he and
Hale compared comet photos with other amateur astronomers.
On one picture, they point out, you can see bright jets just
beginning to form; jets are explosions of gases and dust
particles off a comet.
Astronomers say this comet is one of the most active they've
ever seen.
Bopp is the quiet one
Neither Bopp nor Hale makes a living studying the skies,
although Hale has written a book about their discovery that
they both autograph. Hale is outgoing, and handles most of
their calls -- Bopp has an unlisted number. "So it is easier
to track me down than him -- the tabloid stuff stops at me,"
Hale says.
"I appreciate him being the buffer there, the kooks get hold
of Alan and I get the quality media," Bopp jokes.
Originally, Bopp says, the comet came from a place called
Oort cloud, a group of comets that lies about halfway to the
nearest star. Scientists can't see its core, but estimate
Comet Hale-Bopp has a diameter of about 25 miles. If it
survives this trip and doesn't melt, it will be back around
in about 2,400 years.
The alien rumor
Naturally, Comet Hale-Bopp has made its way onto the
Internet, but Hale is upset about some stories that suggest
unidentified flying objects are following the comet.
"There's a lot of scientific nonsense flying around right
now," he says.
"If you don't believe me, go out and take a look at the
comet ... and see for yourself if there's anything there.
And if you still don't believe me, I'm selling tickets to the
alien landing," he says , laughing. The mysterious object,
says Hale, is simply a bright star near the comet.
Hale and Bopp are two guys who grew up learning and loving
astronomy. They weren't paid a dime to look at stars that
July night. They were doing what they love to do, and made
history.
And now, the pair are using their moment in the spotlight to
entice others to go outside, and look up.
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