A Spectacular Sight Path Of Comet Hale-Bopp Brings Celestial Body Through Northeast Sky

The astronomers can hardly wait for this special comet.

During the next eight weeks, Hale-Bopp is expected to put on a light show worth watching. This one’s going to be worth getting up early to see for Northwest viewers, they forecast.

As viewed in Washington and Oregon, the comet’s daily path across the sky will be to the northeast. It can be seen at about 6 a.m. about 25 degrees above the eastern horizon.

“Look for a bright star in the eastern sky. That is Altair,” said Joanne Hughes, a University of Washington astronomer. “Then scan upwards and to the left. The comet, its brightness dimmed by the bright sky around the metropolitan area, will appear as a faint, fuzzy object.”

For best views, Hughes said, find an area surrounded by a dark expanse, such as Puget Sound or the mountains.

“It’ll certainly be a really good comet,” added Don Brownlee, another UW astronomer. “It may not be the brightest one this century, but it will be one of the brightest.”

Exactly how bright?

” … It may be 30 years before we get something like this again,” he added.

A few days ago, Brownlee said he went out into his yard at 5:30 a.m. to see if he could see Hale-Bopp.

“With the eye, you can barely tell that it wasn’t a star,” he said. “With a pair of binoculars, it looked like a fuzzy object.” It will get better, astronomers promise.

By mid-March, Hale-Bopp will brighten and sink slowly to the northeastern sky, where it will be seen lower above the horizon.

By late March, the comet will be visible in the evenings. By then, it will put on a much more spectacular display.

Its brilliance should peak on April Fools’ Day, when it will be closest to the sun.

“It’s going to brighten toward the end of March as it gets closer to the Earth and sun,” Hughes said.

How does this comet compare to, say, the famous Halley’s Comet?

Scientists estimate Hale-Bopp’s dust output - the key to a comet’s brightness - at 10 to 20 times that of Halley’s.

Earthlings need not worry. Hale-Bopp, which is traveling at 40,000 mph, will come within 12 million miles of the planet. That’s not especially close as comets and Earth go, Hughes said.

Just in case the astronomers are wrong, they’re giving themselves an out.

“You never quite know how it’s going to behave,” Hughes explained.

Said Brownlee: “It may intrinsically be the most active comet in several centuries. But how bright a comet appears to us also depends on how far away from us it is.”

Hale-Bopp was named for astronomers Alan Hale and Tom Bopp, who discovered it in 1995.