Comet Hale-Bopp passes north of the sun and into the morning sky on Dec. 31. Observers with a low eastern horizon should be able to pick it up again by the third week of January.
In the past few weeks stories of "mysterious" objects in the vicinity of the comet have circulated. The most popular - a Saturn-like Object (SLO) imaged on Nov. 14 by an amateur astronomer - turned out to be nothing other than an 8.5 magnitude star. Other similar objects that I've seen on Internet images appear to be out-of-focus images of bright stars. In all respects Comet Hale-Bopp is behaving as an average comet. It is bigger than perhaps any comet we have seen, but its variable brightness, tails and jets are normal. If anything mysterious truly appears, you will find it reported in the mainstream press, and in most cases be able to go outside and see it yourself through your telescope.
Meanwhile, Comet Tabur dims in our morning sky. Its magnitude has been unpredictable lately. Periodic Comet Wirtanen is returning. The Hubble Space telescope imaged it in August 1996 and "measured" the nucleus' diameter to be 1.16 km. Finally, Periodic Comet Wild 2 should be visible for several months.
EPHEMERIDES C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) Date(00UT) R.A. (2000) Dec El Sky Mag 12-08 18h11.6m +00o18' 29o E 3.9 12-13 18h17.3m +01o03' 28o E 3.7 12-18 18h23.4m +01o53' 27o E 3.5 12-23 18h29.9m +02o49' 27o E 3.3 12-28 18h36.7m +03o51' 27o E 3.1 01-02 18h44.0m +05o01' 28o M 2.9 01-07 18h51.7m +06o18' 29o M 2.7 01-12 19h00.0m +07o45' 31o M 2.5 01-17 19h08.9m +09o22' 32o M 2.2 01-22 19h18.5m +11o11' 34o M 1.9 01-27 19h29.0m +13o13' 36o M 1.7 02-01 19h40.5m +15o29' 38o M 1.4 02-06 19h53.4m +18o01' 40o M 1.1 02-11 20h07.8m +20o50' 41o M 0.7 C/1996 Q1 (Tabur) Date(00UT) R.A. (2000) Dec El Sky Mag 12-08 15h59.9m +19o46' 45o M 10.6 12-13 16h03.5m +18o08' 46o M 10.9 12-18 16h06.7m +16o39' 47o M 11.2 12-23 16h09.5m +15o19' 48o M 11.5 12-28 16h11.8m +14o07' 50o M 11.8 01-02 16h13.8m +13o02' 53o M 12.0 01-07 16h15.4m +12o05' 56o M 12.2 01-12 16h16.4m +11o13' 59o M 12.4 01-17 16h16.9m +10o27' 62o M 12.6 01-22 16h16.9m +09o47' 66o M 12.8 01-27 16h16.2m +09o11' 70o M 13.0 02-01 16h14.7m +08o39' 75o M 13.1 02-06 16h12.5m +08o11' 80o M 13.3 02-11 16h09.5m +07o46' 85o M 13.4 46P/Wirtanen Date(00UT) R.A. (2000) Dec El Sky Mag 12-08 21h53.2m -24o24' 66o E 13.3 12-13 22h02.7m -23o13' 64o E 13.1 12-18 22h12.6m -21o58' 61o E 13.0 12-23 22h23.1m -20o37' 59o E 12.8 12-28 22h34.1m -19o11' 57o E 12.6 01-02 22h45.5m -17o40' 55o E 12.4 01-07 22h57.4m -16o02' 53o E 12.2 01-12 23h09.8m -14o19' 52o E 12.0 01-17 23h22.6m -12o30' 50o E 11.8 01-22 23h35.9m -10o34' 49o E 11.6 01-27 23h49.7m -08o33' 48o E 11.4 02-01 00h03.9m -06o26' 47o E 11.2 02-06 00h18.7m -04o13' 46o E 11.1 02-11 00h34.0m -01o54' 45o E 10.9 81P/Wild 2 Date(00UT) R.A. (2000) Dec El Sky Mag 12-08 08h21.0m +16o38' 133o M 12.5 12-13 08h22.3m +16o36' 137o M 12.3 12-18 08h22.9m +16o36' 142o M 12.1 12-23 08h22.7m +16o41' 147o M 11.9 12-28 08h21.7m +16o49' 153o M 11.7 01-02 08h19.9m +17o02' 158o M 11.6 01-07 08h17.4m +17o18' 164o M 11.4 01-12 08h14.3m +17o38' 170o M 11.2 01-17 08h10.6m +18o01' 176o M 11.0 01-22 08h06.5m +18o27' 177o E 10.9 01-27 08h02.3m +18o54' 172o E 10.8 02-01 07h58.2m +19o22' 166o E 10.6 02-06 07h54.3m +19o49' 159o E 10.5 02-11 07h51.1m +20o16' 154o E 10.4 ELEMENTS Object Hale-Bopp Tabur Peri. Date 1997 04 01.13453 1996 11 03.52688 Peri. Dist (AU) 0.9141030 AU 0.8398272 AU Arg/Peri (2000): 130.59083 deg. 057.40724 deg. Asc. Node (2000): 282.47069 deg. 031.40177 deg. Incl (2000) 089.42936 deg. 073.35813 deg. Eccen: 0.9950969 0.9989006 Orbital Period: ~4700 years Long period Ref: MPC 28052 MPC 28052 Epoch: 1997 03 13 1996 11 13 Absol. Mag/"n": -2.0/4.0 9.5/4.0 Object P/Wirtanen P/Wild 2 Peri. Date 1997 03 14.14299 1997 05 06.62789 Peri. Dist (AU) 1.0637469 AU 1.5826156 AU Arg/Peri (2000): 356.34322 deg. 041.77000 deg. Asc. Node (2000): 082.20387 deg. 136.15458 deg. Incl (2000) 011.72255 deg. 003.24276 deg. Eccen: 0.6567490 0.5402220 Orbital Period: 5.46 years 6.39 years Ref: MPC 27080 MPC 28272 Epoch: 1997 03 13 1997 04 22 Absol. Mag/"n": 9.0/6.0 7.0/6.0 DonM353259@aol.com. Don Machholz (916) 346-8963
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