178K
Observer: Bob Yen
Location: Mojave Desert, California
Date: March 5-11, 1997
The strengtening of comet is evidenced, by development of ion and dust tails. The ion tail features *spike-like* streamers near the nucleus (especially active on March 7), and *downwind* vorticular action with gaps + disconnections. The dust tail begins to show hints of *dust bands* on March 5, and are particularly evident on certain days. The source is the very active + productive dust jet (which the visual observers are raving about), which is generating a strong dust stream.
Bob Yen
email contact: byen@ix.netcom.com or
http://www.comet-track.com/hb/hb.html
Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page